Fomulation And Nutritional Quality Of Extruded Weaning Food Supplemented With Whole Egg Powder

Providing adequate nutrition during early childhood is of paramount importance for maintaining health.Inadequate intake of nutritionally balanced foods results in inhibition of growth.Poor nutrition during childhood affects a large portion of the world's population.Therefore,development of nutritious supplementary foods has been suggested by FAO to combat malnutrition among children.The nutritious quality of cereals(rice),legumes(soybean) and vegetables(carrot) can be improved and also exploited as human food by processing techniques such as extrusion-cooking.Extrusion cooking can manufacture a wide range of plant and animal food material into a ready-to-eat form economicallyWeaning diets were formulated from locally available least expensive food items.The supplements were rice,Soybean,carrot,whole egg powder and maltodextrin.The three weaning foods were formulated(WF₁,WF₂ and WF₃).These formulations were extruded respectively at 100,110 and 120℃and the moisture of feed blends was kept constant at 10%.The extruded based on pre-roast mix of the raw seeds with whole egg powder and maltodextrin were developed and characterized in terms of the hot paste viscosity, chemical and nutritional quality,amino acid composition and nitrogen solubility. Comparative evaluations of the three extruded products were undertaken on the commercial weaning food(CWF) and the national standards of China GB 10770-1997. Nutritional compositions of the feed blends were within the following ranges,protein: 17.16,18.38,and 18.05%;moisture:8.06,8.09 and 8.04%;fat:18.13,18.69,and 18.54 %;carbohydrates:55.57,54.08,and 54.60%;energy values:457.59,458.05,and 457.66 kcal/100g and appreciable quantities of minerals Fe,Zn,Ca,Mg and P.The weaning diet blends had peak viscosities of 281,301 and 225 BU respectively for WF₁,WF₂,and WF₃. The nitrogen digestibility correct amino acid score,which is a combination of the protein solubility of the weaning food;the maximum solubility was shown over a pH range of 6 -8,while WF₂ had the highest value 73.37%,followed by WF₁ 71.37%and WF₃ had the lowest value 70.51%.Thus,WF₁ had the highest value 393mL/g of water absorption capacity(WAC),followed by WF₂ 365mL/g while WF₃ had the lowest value 294mL/g. Bulk density generally decreased with increase in whole egg powder supplementation in all weaning diets,the values were 0.42 g/mL,0.34 g/mL and 0.26 g/mL;respectively. The thermal analysis of extruded WF and CWF proteins studied by differential scanning colorimetric DSC protein denaturation,carbohydrates composition,sensory and microbiological analysis of extruded WF were also done.