QUALITY ASSESSMENT AND NUTRIENT COMPOSITION OF WEANING FOOD FORMULATED FROM STAPLE FOODS

Prevalence of malnutrition in children in India is high due to poor complementary feeding practices. Every third child in India is suffering from malnutrition. An attempt was made to formulate low cost, nutritive complementary food using soya bean, wheat, apple, sweet potato and carrot. The blend prepared was evaluated for their physical and chemical analysis. According to the sensory evaluation data, WF3 was scored higher on average by the panelist in terms of the taste, consistency, color and overall acceptability. Standard methods were used for the chemical analysis, the ash and moisture content of the prepared blend was 6.519g and 0.33%, protein, calcium, carbohydrate, β carotene, iron, fat, fiber and vit C was 10.67g, 6.48mg, 46.25g, 687.06mg, 5.281mg, 2.329g, 3.88mg and 6.48mg respectively which was able to meet the recommended dietary allowances of infants. The blend was found rich in protein, calcium, energy and β carotene. Therefore result suggests that the weaning food is a potential tool for eliminating the protein energy malnutrition among the children which provides sufficient energy with good proteins, calcium and β carotene in adequate levels through a cost effective way than conventional staple cereals flour mixtures.