Background: Assessment of protein quality is aimed at determining the ability of a protein to meet up with the needs for maintenance, growth, pregnancy and lactation. Objective: To evaluate the protein quality of complementary food made from local food blends using albino rats. Methods: Maize, carrot, crayfish, milk and other ingredients were purchased, processed and used for the study. The maize, crayfish and carrot flours were blended in the ratio of 100:0:0, 70:25:5, 70:20:10, 70:15:15, 70:10:20 and 70:5:25 respectively. The six diets provided 10% protein for six groups of rats. The diets were fed to forty (40) weanling albino rats in a 21-day growth period and 7-days Nitrogen balance study. Milk was used as control and Nitrogen free diet was used for the estimation of endogenous nitrogen. The result generated were statistically analyzed using SPSS version 22. Results: The result showed that over 70% of the nitrogen consumed by all the five groups of rats fed the mixed diets were absorbed and retained. Among the test diet groups, the 70:20:10 diet had the highest absorbed nitrogen (2.10 g), retained nitrogen (2.00 g), biological value (80%) and net protein utilization (77%) which was significantly different from the other groups. The 70:20:10 diet had the highest Total digestibility (94%), highest food intake (230g), weight gain (52.10%) and PER (2.7) that were comparable with the reference protein (milk) at (p>0.05). The mineral metabolism of all the rats fed the test diets were absorbed and retained. Conclusion: The study revealed that complementary food of high protein quality and nutrient dense can be produced from blends of maize, carrot and crayfish. All the complementary food made from blends of maize, carrot and crayfish blend were of higher nutrient quality than the popular homemade complementary food made of maize alone. It is imperative that blends of local foods stuffs should be used as complementary food instead of only cereal in order to improve the nutritional status of a growing child and also curb prevalence of protein energy malnutrition that is common among under five.

The study was carried out to determine the biscuit making potentials of cooking banana and yellow maize flour blends. Cooking banana and yellow maize were processed and milled into flour then blended for composite biscuit production. The samples were coded as follows; A=100:0, B=90:10, C= 80:20, D=70:30, E=60:40 and F=0:100 of maize and cooking banana respectively. All the samples were subjected to laboratory analysis for proximate and minerals using standard methods. Sensory properties of the biscuit were also evaluated by 20 panelist. Data was subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) using SPSS and the result recorded as mean ± standard deviation while the mean was separated using Duncan New Multiple Range (P<0.05). The results were 0.50 to 120.75% protein, 4.08 to 5.10% moisture, 3.45 to 7.15% fat, 2.13 to 3.68% fibre and 77.81 to 82.91% carbohydrate. The minerals were 0.50 to 120.75 mg Ca, 4.10 to 12.75 mg Fe, 124.66 to 176.10 mg Mg, 10.32 to 24.75 mg Na, 1.45 to 2.13 mg Zn and 50. 22 to 116.33 mg P. There was significant different (P≤0.05) in texture, colour, appearance, flavor and overall acceptability of biscuits made from the composite flour. The study has revealed that biscuits of high nutrient dense and acceptable organoleptic properties could be produced from yellow maize and cooking banana composite flour blends. The use of yellow maize and cooking banana flour in biscuits preparation resulted in significant improvement in the nutrient content of the composite biscuits.