Abstract

Complementary Food (CF) was developed from provitamin A biofortified maize to address the problem of Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) among rural children. Three composite flour blends were formulated using different ratio of Fermented Flour (FF) and Malted Flour(MF) of vitamin A biofortified maize, Soybean Flour (SF) and seasonings like Granulated Sugar (GS) and Crayfish Powder (CP). Composite flour blend1 contains (50% FF, 20% MF, 30% SF, 0% GS & 0% CP), blend2 (40% FF, 20% MF, 30% SF, 10% GS & 0% CP), blend3 (40% FF, 20% MF, 25% SF, 10% GS & 5% CP) while the ordinary maize slurry was used as the control. Each of the formulae was prepared into porridge and subjected to sensory evaluation of parameters like taste, texture, appearance, colour, gelatinousness, smell and overall acceptability. The home-made CF blend that was adjudged to be mostly acceptable among mothers was the one from blend 3 formulation with overall acceptability score of 3.88. It was concluded that this product could serve as a better alternative to the traditional watery maize gruel, usually prepared from maize slurry (control) which is deficient in micronutrients and commonly used as CF among the resource poor nursing mothers in rural households who could not afford the cost of commercial weaning foods.