Development of cereal and legume based food products for the elderly.

Pruet Satusap,Wantanee Kriengsinyos,Kunchit Judprasong,Visith Chavasit

doi:10.1186/2193-1801-3-451

Abstract

Diets for elderly must contain nutritious foods, fit their physiological limitations, and match with their food culture. Cereals and legumes are suggested food choices regardless of their cultures and beliefs. Ready-to-eat products containing suitable macronutrient patterns from cereals and legumes were developed. Energy distributions from carbohydrate (60 kcal/100 kcal), protein (15 kcal/100 kcal), and fat (25 kcal/100 kcal), protein quality, and percent energy from saturated fatty acid and free sugar were criteria for the formulation. Carbohydrate sources were rice flour, brown rice flour, mung bean starch, which carbohydrate in rice flour was the most digestible on in vitro test. Protein and fat sources were soybean flour, black sesame seed, and rice bran oil. Three products, i.e., flake snack, instant beverage, and instant soup were produced by drying basic ingredients as flakes on a double-roller drum dryer and directly used or dry-mixed with other ingredients. The products (Aw <0.3) had balanced energy distribution, good quality protein, and energy from saturated fat < 8 kcal/100 kcal and free sugar < 10 kcal/100 kcal. Results from sensory central location test in 219 elderly subjects indicated that the flake snacks from both carbohydrate sources were significantly more acceptable than the other two products.

Highlights

Are becoming a large proportion of the world’s population in developed and developing countries, increasing from 0.6 billion in 2000 to 2 billion by 2050 (World Health Organization 2002a)
By using locally available cereals and legumes, nutritious ready-to-eat food products for elderly persons could be produced in the forms of flake snacks, instant cereal drink and instant soup by using a drum dryer
The products were balanced in energy distribution from macronutrients and contained good quality protein, as well as being low in saturated fatty acid and free sugar

Summary

Introduction

Are becoming a large proportion of the world’s population in developed and developing countries, increasing from 0.6 billion in 2000 to 2 billion by 2050 (World Health Organization 2002a). The health care costs for this growing age group will likewise increase, especially for curative care, even though prevention is recognized as more economical and sustainable (Chernoff 2006). In this context, nutrition is one of the key elements of success in a health promotion strategy (Morley and Thomas 2007). Available food products in the market may not be suitable for the elderly in terms of nutrition, physical characteristics, and cost. Raw materials from different retail packages were pooled and homogenously mixed and repacked under vacuum in nylon-lined plastic bags for powders and in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles for oil. The repacked and mixed materials were stored in cold room at 8°C until use

Objectives

Results

Conclusion