Proximate Analysis of Some Selected Infant Formula Sold in Makurdi Metropolis

Abstract

Infant formula is a synthetic version of mother’s milk and belongs to a class of food materials known as dairy substitutes. This study was designed to evaluate the proximate composition of some selected infant formula sold in Makurdi metropolis. Six (6) different brands of infant formula samples were purchased from the major markets, Wadata market and North bank market Makurdi Benue State, North Central Nigeria. The six different brands comprise of three (3) infant milk formulae and three (3) infant cereal formulae. Samples on some Selected Infant Formulae were analysed in the laboratory for proximate composition and the data were subjected to Analysis of Variance to rank the significant differences in means. There were significantly different (P<0.05) across the selected infant formulae sample for moisture, ash, crude protein, crude fate, crude fibre and carbohydrates. The result shows that FRISOGOLD significantly (P<0.05) has the highest moisture content (11.60%) with cowbell having the lowest (2.45%) while the ash content of cowbell was found to be the highest compared to other formulae. In conclusion, the commercial baby food samples (MYBOY, NAN and cowbell) have a low moisture content which suggests an asset as this prolongs the shelf life and also inhibits microbial activity on these products thereby preventing spoilage.