Nutritional Composition and Consumer Acceptability of Complementary Meal Blended from Pearl Millet, Sorghum, Chickpea, Sesame and Moringa Oleifera

Childhood malnutrition caused by the consumption of low-nutrient-density foods continues to be a major problem in Ethiopia. Complementary foods play a crucial role in facilitating the consumption of important nutrients. Therefore, it is better to focus on the development of complementary food aimed at reducing such malnutrition. This study was designed to formulate complementary food from the blend of malted sorghum and pearl millet, roasted chickpea and sesame, moringa oleifera flours for vulnerable infants. All samples were cleaned of any impurities. Pearl millet and sorghum samples were malted and dried; chickpea and sesame samples were roasted; and the moringa oleifera sample was dried. Then all samples were milled, sieved, and packed for further analysis. The proximate composition and anti-nutritional factors, and sensory analysis were conducted by standard methods. The result of this study revealed that proximate and anti-nutritional factors composition are significantly affected (P<0.05) by the blend ratio. Moisture, protein, fat, carbohydrate, and energy value content ranged from 4.35 (T4) to 4.77% (T1), 13.51 (T5) to 15.91% (T4), 8.05 (T2) to 12.40% (T4), 61.40 (T4) to 66.79% (T2) and 394.66 (T2) to 420.83 kcal/100g (T4) respectively. Tannin, phytic acid and oxalate content ranged from 4.37(T1) to 11.16% (T5), 0.02(T2) to 0.04% (T1) and 41(T5) to 69.12mg/100g (T1) respectively. The overall sensorial acceptability of complementary food (porridge) ranged from 4.75 (T3) to 5.17 (T4). Therefore, based on the proximate composition and sensory evaluation data, treatment four (T4) of the proportion, 20% sorghum + 40% pearl millet + 20% chickpea + 10% sesame + 10% moringa oleifera complied with codex standards set for complementary food. Therefore, this proportion can be taken as an appropriate complementary food to fulfill the nutritional demand of children either by manufacturing in complementary food processing factories or preparing at household level if ingredients are easily accessible.