International Journal of Food Science and Nutrition

Authors
Egbujie AE, Okoye JI

Abstract
This study was carried out to evaluate the proximate, mineral and sensory properties of nutritive and ready-to-eat complementary foods formulated from blends of sorghum, African yam bean and crayfish flour. The protein, ash, fat and crude fibre contents of the samples increased significantly (p<0.05) with increase in substitution with African yam bean and crayfish flours from 13.56±0.29 – 23.88±0.82%, 2.77±0.02-3.67±0.02%, 1.85±0.01-3.64±0.01 and 1.46±0.06-2.15±0.02%, respectively, while the carbohydrate and energy contents decreased. The control sample without substitution with African yam bean and crayfish flours (100% malted sorghum flour) had the highest carbohydrate (72.36±0.21%) and energy (364.33±0.35KJ/100g) contents. The mineral content of the complementary foods also showed similar increases in calcium (12.68±1.24-84.86±7.83mg/100g), iron (2.68±0.03-7.99±0.08mg/100mg) and zinc (1.28±0.02-1.63±0.13mg/100g) with increase in substitution with African yam bean and crayfish flours, while the phosphorus and potassium contents decreased. The control sample without substitution had the highest phosphorus (257.01±41.44mg/100g) and potassium (346.20±0.03mg/100g) contents, respectively. The sensory properties of the samples showed that the colour, taste, flavour and texture of the control sample were significantly (p<0.05) the most acceptable to the assessors compared to the samples substituted with African yam bean and crayfish flours at different graded levels. Although, the control sample had better consumer’s sensory attributes, it was the lowest in nutrient contents compared to the formulated samples with the exception of carbohydrate, phosphorus and potassium. The study, therefore, showed that the macro and micronutrient contents of the gruels can be improved by substituting sorghum-based traditional complementary foods with African yam bean and crayfish flours at the levels of 5 to 30% and 5 to 20%, respectively in the preparation of complementary foods.