Nutritional and sensory qualities of extruded Ready-To-Eat baby foods from orange-fleshed sweet potato enriched with amaranth seeds, and soybean flour

Abstract

Adequate nutrition is critical during infancy and childhood because life phases are marked by significant physical, mental, and changes in behaviour, such as fast growth, weight gain, the development of cognitive and psychomotor abilities, and a change in dietary preferences. This study was carried out to investigate the effect of extrusion cooking and blend proportions on the nutritional qualities of extruded ready-to-eat baby foods. Different blends of orange-fleshed sweet potato, amaranth seeds, and soybean flour were used to formulate foods and analyzed for proximate, minerals, vitamin A content, anti-nutrient content, physical properties, and sensory qualities. Extrusion cooking was conducted at a temperature of 90oC, screw speed of 400 rpm, and feed moisture content of 35%. The results reveal that extruded ready-to-eat baby foods had a high protein content of 15.72%, total minerals (5.39%), carbohydrate content (80.58%), crude fibre content (5.04%), fat content (6.05%), energy value (380.84 kcal/100g), energy-to-protein ratio (128.67 kcal/g of protein) and vitamin A content (1044.70 REA µg/100g). The micronutrients of extruded baby foods resulted in high iron content of 3.10 mg/100g, zinc content (0.64 mg/100g), manganese content (0.90 mg/100g), copper content (0.97 mg/100g), magnesium content (81.70 mg/100g), calcium content (61.22 mg/100g), potassium content (68.18 mg/100g) and sodium content (41.44 mg/100g). The produced ready-to-eat baby foods showed a reduction in anti-nutrients as well as acceptable levels of phytate content which ranged from 0.47-1.79 mg/100g, oxalate content (0.16 – 0.50 mg/100g) and saponin content (0.20 – 0.48 mg/100g). All produced foods were highly accepted through sensory evaluation. These important findings confirm that extrusion cooking is useful in the production of nutrient-dense baby foods. In addition, the most significant observation of this study is that the produced foods could be used for under-five years children who suffer from protein-energy malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies. These findings will also contribute to food and nutrition security.