Abstract
Childhood growth stunting is a pervasive problem in Malawi and is in large part due to low quality complementary foods and chronic gut inflammation. Introducing legumes such as cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) into the complementary diet has the potential to improve childhood growth by improving diet quality through improvements in macro- and micronutrients and also by reducing gut inflammation. However, cowpea is relatively underutilized in complementary feeding in Malawi due to its strong taste, long processing time, and high energy requirements for processing. Effective utilization of cowpea in complementary feeding requires processing which may affect chemical composition as well as sensory quality. The present study evaluated the effect of processing on the retention of zinc, crude fibre, and flavonoid in roasted, boiled, and dehulled cowpea flours, and assessed the acceptability of maize porridge (70%) enriched with one of the three cowpea flours (30%). Roasting, dehulling, and boiling did not have any effect on zinc content. Crude fibre content increased after processing by all methods. Processing had no effect on measurable flavonoids. Roasted, boiled, and dehulled cowpea blended maize porridges were acceptable to children with mean quantities of leftover food of less than 3g from the given 100g. Caregivers also rated the blended flours to be highly acceptable to them as well, with maize porridge blended with dehulled cowpea flour the most acceptable to both children and caregivers. These results demonstrate that cowpea flour, processed by any of these three different methods, could serve as a useful addition to maize porridge for complementary feeding of children in sub-Saharan Africa.
Highlights
Malawi, a developing country in sub-Saharan Africa, is still battling the pervasive scourge of childhood malnutrition [1]
The problem is most pressing in rural areas where complementary feeding consists mainly of porridge made from maize flour only
95% of the study children had already been introduced to complementary feeding with maize porridge
Summary
A developing country in sub-Saharan Africa, is still battling the pervasive scourge of childhood malnutrition [1]. The problem is most pressing in rural areas where complementary feeding consists mainly of porridge made from maize flour only. Development of a novel cowpea blended maize porridge sponsors had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript
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