Abstract
The high prevalence of undernutrition among children in developing countries has necessitated the present study which was aimed at evaluating the contribution of Microtermes nigeriensis-improved cassava mahewu (TECM) to nutrient intake (RNI) of children. Cassava flour was replaced with M. nigeriensis (MN) powder at 30% and fermented to obtain cassava mahewu. Standard cassava mahewu (SCM) was used as control. The samples were analysed for proximate and micronutrients after freeze drying using standard methods. Nutrient intakes were computed and percentage contributions to RNI were calculated. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results indicate that contribution of SCM to RNI were protein (5.8, 4.6%), iron (8.6, 7.5%), Zinc (4.5, 2.9%), calcium (2.5, 1.4%) and Vitamin C (34.9, 30.5%) for 6–9 and 10–15 years old respectively, which is extremely low compared to reference RNI. However, the inclusion of MN improved (P<0.05) contribution to protein (46.4 and 36.8%), Zinc (45.4 and 29.5%), Iron (72.7 and 63.6%) and Ascorbate (87.1 and 76.3%) respectively, but did not meet the requirement for calcium (1.98 and 1.06%). This finding indicates that MN-improved cassava mahewu can be used as a food-based strategy to reduce the wide spread child's malnutrition in developing countries if adequately promoted.
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