Development of weaning food from wheat flour supplemented with defatted sesame flour

Abstract

This study was conducted to produce high quality weaning food as complementary from local raw materials (Khartoum, Sudan), intended for feeding infants and young children generally from the age of 6 months to 24 months. Three diets A, B, C, and Cerelac (reference diet) were analyzed for their chemical composition, functional properties, microbial load and sensory quality. The results revealed significant differences (P ≤ 0.05) in the biochemical composition of all diets. The formulated diets have high protein content than that of the reference diet. The study revealed that the protein digestibility ranged from 87.86 to 95.51 for formulated diets compared to reference diet (94.12%). Interestingly, with increasing the amount of sesame flour in the formula the content and scores of all amino acid, as well as the protein digestibility were significantly increased (P ≤ 0.05). Iron content of the diets ranged from 5.14 to 14.05 mg/100g while that of the reference diet was11.24. For functional properties, the bulk density and water holding capacity was concurrently decreased (P ≤ 0.05) with the increase in the sesame flour supplementation. All the diets were free from pathogenic bacteria and hence considered safe for consumption. Sensory evaluation of the studied diets showed that diet C acquired the highest score compared to other diets including the reference diet.