Optimising traditional nutri-diets with finger millet, sesame, moringa and bambara groundnuts inclusion for under five children

Abstract

A study on optimising traditional nutri-diets with finger millet, sesame, moringa and Bambara groundnuts inclusion for under 5 children was done at Heather Chimoga Orphan care in Murehwa to formulate a less cost complementary traditional porridge that reduce malnutrition for under 5 children. The experiment was laid out in a completely randomised design (CRD). It had 4 processed flours (finger millet, sesame, Bambara groundnut and moringa blended at different ratios with 100% finger millet being as a control. The validated procedures were used for sample nutrient analysis and sensory evaluation was done using a 9 –point hedonic scale questionnaire for 50 caregivers with under 5 children using purposive sampling procedure at Mashoko High School in Bikita District of Masvingo Province. A simple random sampling method was used for the nutritional analysis. The data was subjected to an analysis of variance (ANOVA) procedure of the Statistical Package for Social Science statistical software program (IBM SPSS version 20.0) and post hoc analysis. The results reported as (mean ± SD) and the difference between the treatments was determined by Fisher’s Least Significance Difference (LSD) at 0.05 significance level. The results show significant mean difference (p< 0.05) in all the nutrients for the raw flours analysed. The raw flours were formulated to 7 porridges with different blending ratios, analysed and subjected to organoleptic evaluations. The analysis of variance showed significant differences in energy, proteins and vitamins (p<0.000). All porridge samples had energy values below the infants’ complementary foods recommendations. Key analytical results were 329.2±0.20; 348±1.00 ; 343.5±0.447 ; 353.3±0.47; 362.4± 0.10; 371.5±0.10 ; 355.5±0.10 Kcal/100g energy for Mi, MiBa, MiSBaMO1 , MiSBaMO2 , MiSBaMO3 , MiSBaMO4 and MiSBaMO5 respectively . The porridge samples had 6.7±0.20; 11.21±0.02; 13.07±0.02; 12.9± 0.02; 12.4± 0.01; 12.6± 0.02; 12.4± 0.02 g/100g protein for Mi, MiBa, MiSBaMO1 , MiSBaMO2 , MiSBaMO3 , MiSBaMO4 and MiSBaMO5 respectively. MiSBaMO1 protein amount was within the recommended infants’ dietary needs. All the porridge samples had fair vitamin amounts. MiBa had least amount of thiamine 0.29±0.20 mg/100 which is below the recommended. There were significant differences in the amount of micronutrients (p<0.000) in all the porridges. All the porridge samples had vast amount of micronutrients which were within the infants recommended dietary range. Mi had low Fe amount (4.0± 0.212 mg/100g). Zinc amounts were below the dietary recommendations in all the samples, MiBa having the least 1.02±0.021 mg/100g. Analysis of variance showed significance difference in colour, aroma, appearance and overall acceptability (p<0.05) whilst there were no significant differences in taste and texture (p>0.05). A porridge sample MiSBaMO1 showed highest score with mean value of 7.56 in taste, 7.36 in aroma, 7.48 mean value in texture, 7.42 mean appearance, 8.24 in overall acceptability with 96% total acceptability by caregivers .The results of the sensory evaluation showed that blending at 60% millet, 25% Bambara nut, 5% sesame and 10% moringa increased the organoleptic properties of the porridge and also improved the nutritional composition of the traditional complementary porridge for under 5. The viii formulated porridge ratio can ensure healthy lives, compact child malnutrition for poor people and therefore with further research it is recommended for under 5 children as a complementary porridge. Keywords: Complementary; malnutrition; organoleptic; stunting; wasted