Nutritional Quality and Safety Assessment of Complementary Food Produced from Acha (Digitaria exilis) Flour and Kariya (Hildergardia barteri) Protein Concentrate Blends

Abiodun Victor, Ikujenlola; Adedoyin Fikayo, Ahmida; Olasunkanmi Saka, Gbadamosi

Nutritional Quality and Safety Assessment of Complementary Food Produced from Acha (Digitaria exilis) Flour and Kariya (Hildergardia barteri) Protein Concentrate Blends

2017

Abiodun Victor, Ikujenlola | Adedoyin Fikayo, Ahmida | Olasunkanmi Saka, Gbadamosi

Complementary food is the intermediate food given to infant alongside with breast milk. This study is aimed at producing complementary foods from blends of acha flour and kariya protein concentrate. Acha flour was produced from cleaned and milled raw acha. Raw kariya was processed to flour and protein concentrate flour. These flours were blended at 80:20 (acha: kariya). The nutritional qualities of the products were assessed using animal feeding experiment. The protein quality parameters and safety of the blends to the experimental animal were monitored. Data obtained were analyzed using appropriate descriptive and inferential statistics. The result showed that the feed intake ranged between 104.46 and 196.86 g/rat/28 days. There were significant differences (p≥0.05) in growth rates of the animals. Growth of the animals fed with acha blended with processed kariya ceased after the 13th day, while the other groups progressed with varied degrees of increase in weights. The Protein Efficiency Ratio (-1.55 to 1.85), Food Efficiency Ratio (-0.24 to 0.28), True Digestibility (54.26 to 62.89%) and Net Protein Retention (-4.04 to 1.00) of the experimental animals varied with the diets. The mortality rate of 100% was recorded for diets containing acha and processed kariya after the 13th day of the experiment. Despite the high nutritional value and decrease in anti-nutrients contents of kariya after series of processing, the blends were still toxic to the experimental animals (all the animals fed with samples containing kariya died). The kariya containing diets may not be safe for infant consumption.

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