Locally Available African Complementary Foods: Nutritional Limitations and Processing Technologies to Improve Nutritional Quality—A Review

Abstract

ABSTRACT Locally made complementary foods in sub-Saharan Africa are often of poor nutritional quality due to the use of predominantly starchy staples. The type of complementary food fed to infants is determined mainly by availability and affordability especially in rural African communities. The poor nutritional quality of these complementary foods relative to nutritional requirement is responsible for widespread childhood malnutrition in sub-Saharan African. This review discusses the limitations associated with locally made African complementary foods. Some of these limitations include low nutrient density, high viscosity and micronutrient deficiency. Processing techniques that are applied both at the household and commercial level to improve the nutritional quality of complementary foods are also comprehensively examined. Considering some of the constraints related to the household and commercial techniques that are being applied in improving the nutritional quality of complementary foods, novel technologies that are suited for processing complementary foods in sub-Saharan Africa are highlighted and discussed. The novel technologies confer several advantages compared to the household techniques used. Some of which include short cooking time and the potential of making nutrient dense porridges with low viscosity.