In order to develop adequate complementary foods (CFs) to improve infant and young child feeding, the inclusion of animal source foods (ASFs) into plant-based foods (PBFs) is paramount. Unfortunately, the incorporation of ASFs into PBFs to formulate adequate CFs was infrequent in the developing countries, especially Nigeria. Yet, few CFs that were formulated by this strategy lacked adequate studies. This study investigated the compositional quality of CFs formulated from Nigerian yellow maize flour (MF), yellow maize + soybean flour (MSF), yellow maize + soybean + crayfish flour (MSCF), and commercial fortified wheat milk flour (FWMF) and their impact on the growth performance and physiological status of Sprague Dawley rats (SDRs). Compositional quality of CFs and their effects on the health status of SDRs were assessed. MSCF had higher protein and ash contents, its sulphur amino acids content was about 132% higher than that of MSF and astaxanthin was detected only in it. Determined antinutrients much reduced in MSCF compared with other CFs. The body weight gain (23.75 g) in yellow maize + soybean + crayfish diet (MSCD) group was significantly higher than other diet groups, whilst the value of protein efficiency ratio (2.59), feed efficiency ratio (0.30) in MSCD group was nominally higher compared with other groups. Better improvement in some of the biochemical and haematological parameters were observed in MSCD group compared with other groups, but no signs of illness, infection, and organ damage were seen in all the groups. The current study proved that crayfish could be used in a dietary modification to produce an adequate CF that potentiates improved growth performance and positive health outcomes in animals. Graphical Abstract
BACKGROUND: Plant-based complementary foods (CFs) supply insufficient amount of nutrients to meet recommended nutrient intakes for 6-23-month-old children. The present study determined the nutritional quality of CFs formulated from blends of Nigerian yellow maize (Zea mays), soybean (Glycine max) and crayfish (Procambarus clarkii). Three CFs were formulated; namely, maize flour (MF, 100:0% w/w), blends of maize and soybean flour (MSF, 72:28% w/w), and maize, soybean and crayfish flour (MSCF, 80:10:10% w/w). Nutritional quality was evaluated using analyses of chemical composition of CFs and of protein quality of complementary food diets. Data were compared by multivariate analysis of variance and significantly differentiated. Nine selected nutritional criteria were used to decide the CF that had best nutritional characteristics compared to MF and fortified wheat flour (FWMF). RESULTS: Total scores obtained from the selected nutritional criteria ranked MSCF, with total score of 15, as the lowest and thus it was considered to have the most desirable nutritional characteristics compared to MF, MSF and FWMF, which had respective total scores of 31, 22 and 20.CONCLUSION: Conclusively, MSCF may serve as a better alternative CF for MF, MSC and FWMF. The present study has produced a potential alternative cost-effective and adequate CF, formulated from crayfish (P. clarkii) supplementation of locally available blend of yellow maize (Z. mays) and soybean (G. max), for the poor human population, aiming to encourage the consumption of animal-sourced CF for alleviating the prevalence of childhood undernutrition.
Yellow maize (Zea mays L.) and soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) are local raw materials used in the formulation of complementary foods in Nigeria. The presence of antinutritional factors such as tannins in them could disrupt the nutritional status in infants and young children, thus leading to malnutrition. However, data on the total tannin contents in maize, soybean, and their products remain limited. This could be due to the lack of a fast, accurate, and inexpensive analytical method for tannin determination. The present work thus evaluated the Folin-Ciocalteu (FC) assay for the accurate quantification of total tannin from yellow maize, soybean, and their products. Techniques including soaking, dehulling, oven-drying, boiling, and frying were used to process the raw materials, prior to grinding and subsequent formulation of their products. The FC method was validated to quantify the total tannin contents from extracts of tested samples by ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectrophotometry. The original extracts from the tested samples, and external standards from tannic acid and total phenolics (µg/µL) were used for method validation. The method validation showed that the instrumental response to standard tannic acid and the investigated analytes were specific, linear (R2 = 0.998), precise (% CV < 20%), and accurate (recovery = 91%). The limits of detection (LOD) and limits of quantification (LOQ) were 0.03 and 0.09 µg/µL, respectively. The validation complied with the requirements to ensure the reliability of the results. The combined processing techniques were also effective in reducing the total tannin content of maize (0.213 to 0.041% TAE) and soybean (0.257 to 0.064% TAE) by 81 and 75%, respectively. The present work demonstrated the suitability of the FC method as an analytical tool for the quantification of total tannin from plant-based food products.
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