Development of sorghum based composite flour for children 6-24 months

Abstract

Currently Uganda is suffering from the triple burden of malnutrition in which under and over nutrition are joined by micronutrient deficiencies and over 4% of children under five years of age have acute malnutrition. The inadequate nutrient intake is attributable to poor infant and young child feeding practices, food insecurity and less utilization of the locally available foods as complementary foods. This research sought to develop a complementary porridge from locally available food materials namely, sorghum, soy, groundnuts, and silver fish. A completely randomized design was used to formulate and evaluate the flour. Six composite flour formulations, with sorghum as the main base, were prepared as follows: T1: 100% sorghum (the control); T2: 55 % sorghum, 40 % soy; T3: 55 % sorghum, 40 % groundnuts; T4: 55 % sorghum, 40 % silver fish; T5: 55 % sorghum, 20 % soy, 20 % groundnuts; and T6: 55 % sorghum, 10 % soy, 10 % groundnuts, 20 % silver fish and analyzed for Proximate composition, energy content, viscosity and sensory acceptability by mothers and caregivers. The porridge formulations contained 0.21 - 9.72% moisture, 7.74 - 27.27% protein, 1.71 - 17.34% fat, 1.71 - 6.36% fiber, 1.11 - 8.42% ash, 46.92 - 75.84% carbohydrate and 346 - 412 kcal energy, viscosity of the porridges were all within the recommended range for children 6-24 months and all samples except sample E had acceptability scores in the like zone demonstrating that nutritionally adequate and organoleptically acceptable porridges can be made from locally available plant food materials.