Nutrient content and acceptability of soybean based complementary food

Abstract

Cereal gruels, starchy roots and tubers continue to form the bulk of staple foods in the world. Though commercial foods of high quality are available, they are unaffordable by much of the world's population. There is need to develop a different approach to offer families the opportunity to feed their infants improved formulations with traditional staples. A study was carried out in Morogoro region, Tanzania, to determine composition and acceptability of soy-based formulations with banana and cowpeas as traditional staples. Bananas, soybean and cowpeas were prepared and used to make composite flour. Soybean were roasted and milled. Fourteen composite flour formulations were prepared by combining the raw materials in different ratios. Chemical analyses of individual formulations were made to determine their proximate compositions. The ranges of the nutrients in the formulations were: 9.58 to 22.23% (crude protein), 0.14 to 4.56% (fibre), 1.15 to 5.51% (fat) and 67.61 to 81.91% (carbohydrate). Blending banana with cowpea alone, addition of 10 to 20% cowpeas in the formulations improved the protein from 9.58 to 13.74%, respectively, but was still lower than the level recommended by Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) and CODEX Alimentarius. Introduction of 10% soybean instead of cowpeas resulted in improvement of the protein to 17.87%, which was above the recommended level, indicating its superiority as a protein source. Such a level of protein in the formulation was quite encouraging even if there were variations in protein content of soybeans used in the formulations. There were significant differences (p<0.05) among formulations for appearance, smell, flavour and general acceptability. Consistency of all formulations compared favourably. Complementary foods of good nutritive value can be locally made by using available food ingredients that complement each other in such a way that they meet the nutritional requirement of children. For banana consuming communities, increased consumption of soybean could improve the nutritional status of their children.

Acceptability of Amaranth Grain-based Nutritious Complementary Foods with Dagaa Fish (Rastrineobola argentea) and Edible Termites (Macrotermes subhylanus) Compared to Corn Soy Blend Plus among Young Children/Mothers Dyads in Western Kenya

“…If the porridge has a very low or very high consistency, its acceptability may be low. Some previous studies have found that complementary food formulations with addition of sugar were found to be more tasty and appealing than those without sugar, indicating that inclusion of sugar not only increased the energy density of the porridge but enhanced the taste and characteristic improved flavour (Martin et al, 2010;Muhimbula et al, 2011). Owino et al, 2007 found that sweetness improved the acceptability of α-amylase-treated maize-beans-groundnuts-bambaranuts complementary blends.…”

Child acceptability of a novel provitamin A carotenoid, iron and zinc-rich complementary food blend prepared from pumpkin and common bean in Uganda: A randomised control trial

“…Testing the acceptability of novel CFs is necessary because it is a measure that can inform whether caregivers will feed the CF to children and whether children will accept to eat the CF (Skinner et al, 2002). However, several studies have used child caregivers to test the acceptability of CFs (Martin, Laswai and Kulwa, 2010;Govender et al, 2014;Amod et al, 2016;Pillay, Khanyile and Siwela, 2018), hence neglecting the target group for CFs, which are children. Such studies argue that they prefer using caregivers to children because children are too young to provide a rational judgement on the sensory attributes such as taste, aroma, colour and texture, usually used to test for acceptability of foods (Martin, Laswai and Kulwa, 2010).…”

Traditional Complementary Foods: A Critical Review

“…The quality of a protein is usually evaluated by comparing its amino acid profile to that of the FAO/WHO/UNU (1985) standard amino acid pattern or by observing the growth performance and nitrogen balance of animals fed on a diet containing legumes as the only protein source. Thus, by combining the protein from legumes and cereals, dietary proteins of high nutritive value similar to protein from meat, fish and egg are obtained due to mutual complementation (Solomon, 2005;Martin et al, 2010). However, one of the militating factors against the use of legume without proper and adequate treatment/processing is its antinutritional factors.…”

“…Vitamin A programme have also been demonstrated to reduce mortality rates of under-five years old children in both Africa and Asia (Davidson, 2002;Figueroa & RodriguezGarcia, 2002). The advice to provide pro-vitamin A-rich fruits and vegetables daily is based on the clear health benefits associated with preventing vitamin A deficiency, and the likelihood that consumption of such foods will also help meet the needs for many of the other vitamins (Martin et al, 2010). Micronutrient deficiencies, particularly deficiencies of iodine, iron and vitamin A are major problems for school age children in low-income countries, Nigeria inclusive.…”

“…Ikujendola & Fashakin (2005) developed a complementary food from maize and cowpea (cowpea-ogi) and reported that the complementary food could be used to feed infants with addition of milk, and food supplement, while Walker & Pavitt (2007) carried out experiment on the energy density of third world weaning foods and reported that most traditional complementary foods energy density meet recommended daily allowance for old infants and young children, but low in protein quality. Other relevant contributors include Martin et al (2010) who formulated a soybean based complementary food and reported that it could be used to complement a baby's food, while Anigo et al (2010) observed that no single protein from a particular legume grain could be adequate to promote growth or enhance nitrogen retention compared to a milkbased diet. It could therefore be concluded that the search for local foodstuffs in the formulation of nutritionally adequate complementary food has long been in existence and is still in progress.…”