Development of Low Cost Weaning Foods from Locally Available Grains

Abstract

Most children suffer from malnutrition. The factors responsible for this are generally ignorance of mothers, low-income, lack of education on the nutritional requirement and also lack of knowledge on the locally available sources of nutritionally rich food crops. Therefore, in the present study, the researchers aimed to develop low-cost nutritional value weaning mix based on locally available ingredients such as wheat, Bengal gram, groundnut and sugar in the proportion of 60:20:15:5 (g/100g). Germination and non-germination were two processing techniques used. The developed weaning mixes were evaluated for their sensory evaluation, proximate analysis and storage studies. Germinated weaning mix increased moisture (9%), protein (17.53%), and fibre content (1.91%) and also improved the sensory parameters. Moisture content and fat acidity of weaning mixes increased with increase in storage periods. The results showed that germinated weaning mixes could be used as good nutritional supplements for infants