Sensory evaluation and volatile compounds of an alternative ready‐to‐use therapeutic food for malnourished children

Abstract

Ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTFs) are special foods used to encourage rapid weight gain in 5-year-old malnourished children, avoiding hospitalization. The factors affecting sensory characteristics and acceptability of RUTFs have been not adequately described. The aim of this work was to evaluate both the sensory properties and volatile compounds of four alternative RUTFs, varying in soy and sorghum, icing sugar, and oil content. Nine nonoral sensory attributes were evaluated by nine selected and trained assessors. The perceived intensity of five oral sensory attributes and the overall liking were assessed by 100 adult consumers. The volatile compounds were extracted and concentrated by solid phase microextraction and analyzed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. RUTF formulations significantly differed for graininess between fingers (size of granules) (P = 0.007), viscosity (P = 0.013), adhesiveness to the spoon (P < 0.044), and meltability (P = 0.005), but in consumers' opinion, they differed only for difficulty in swallowing, intensity of global odor, flavor, and sweetness. A positive correlation between overall liking and sweetness was found. Volatile compounds arising from lipid oxidation (hexanal and octanoic acid) were positively correlated with global odor and flavor. These attributes negatively affected the overall liking and were mainly contained in one out of the four formulations. Sensory and instrumental characterization identified key attributes for this kind of food, such as difficulty in swallowing, global odor, and sweetness, suggesting how to formulate an alternative RUTF to be used for a future clinical trial on malnourished children.Practical Application: Starting from the world's need to fight child malnutrition, the present study tried to characterize alternative ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTFs), special foods used to encourage rapid weight gain in 5-year-old malnourished children, from several points of view, such as acceptability, stability, technological, and overall quality. Results obtained will be an aid to setup the technological conditions and scale-up parameters for local productions of RUTFs to be tested in real trials on malnourished children. Indeed, key sensory attributes that drive consumer acceptance for this special food, such as sweetness and difficulty in swallowing, came out from the present study.

Rheological Properties, Particle Size Distribution and Physical Stability of Novel Refined Pumpkin Seed Oil Creams with Oleogel and Lucuma Powder

“…Furthermore, Taylor et al (2009) [45] investigated the rheological behaviour of chocolate with crumb and sunflower oil, finding σ 0 and η ∞ values in the range of 20-70 Pa and 4-15 Pa•s, respectively. Our results are also in line with those reported by Cavella et al (2020) [22] who studied the effect of ball milling on the rheological properties of a white chocolate anhydrous paste with a fat phase made up of a mix of cocoa butter, palm, and sunflower oil, and Loncarevič et al (2017) [19], who suggested using sesame and rapeseed oil instead of sunflower oil in spreadable creams.…”

“…After 120 min (Figure 4c), CBS and OLS creams showed remarkably similar viscosity curves, lower than that of OS cream. However, after 150 min (Figure 4d), OLS cream seemed to have the lowest viscosity values, indicating an effect of the Lucuma powder on this cream property, as also observed by Miele et al (2020) [41] for RUTF formulations in which the oil/powder ratio was the same, but the sugar content was reduced, and the soy flour content increased. However, it is also true that at the end of the refining process, OLS cream presented a D90 higher than that of both CBS and OS creams.…”

Ready-to-use therapeutic/supplementary foods from local food resources: Technology accessibility, program effectiveness, and sustainability, a review

“… The main ingredients: soy flour, sunflower oil, icing sugar, sorghum flour, soy lecithin, and spirulina produced in Italy. Armini et al (2018) [ 39 ], Miele et al (2020) [ 40 ] Newly developed RUTF (Iran) About 10%, 6%, and 3% of under-five children in Iran were stunted, underweight, and wasted. Study location: six urban health centers in Shahr-e-Rey, Tehran, Iran.…”

“…In addition, fatty acid as a significant component of triglyceride is limited in children with malnutrition, which can be observed in skin conditions, limited growth rate, an increase of infection, and the hampering of the child's development [ 62 ]. Therefore, numerous studies on nutrition intervention for different categories of malnourished children have included oil as an essential part of the formulation, such as cottonseed oil [ 15 ], vegetable oil [ 8 , 23 , 33 ], palm oil [ 20 , 30 , 24 , 27 , 31 , 32 ], soybean oil [ [28] , [29] , [31] , [32] ], linseed oil [ 30 , 27 ], canola oil [ 37 , 32 ], rapeseed oil [ 27 ], coconut oil [ 32 ], and sunflower oil [ 39 , 32 , 40 ]. Different sources of oil provide specific configurations of fatty acids, which can be chosen according to the locally available commodities and the specific fatty acid needed.…”

PENGEMBANGAN PRODUK READY TO USE THERAPEUTIC FOOD (RUTF) BERBENTUK BAR BERBAHAN KACANG HIJAU, SEREALIA, DAN MINYAK NABATI <br><i> Development of Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) Bar Product Made from Mungbean, Cereal, and Vegetable oils </i></br>

“…Salah satu upaya mengatasi masalah ini adalah pemberian RUTF (Ready to use therapeutic food) (Hendrixson et al, 2020). RUTF merupakan produk padat energi yang diperkaya dengan zat gizi mikro yang diberikan kepada balita malnutrisi akut berat tanpa komplikasi atau tanpa penyakit penyerta (Miele et al, 2020). Beberapa penelitian telah membuktikan produk RUTF dapat meningkatkan pemulihan malnutrisi akut berat tanpa komplikasi dari 25-50% menjadi 80-90% (Ciliberto et al, 2005;Linneman et al, 2007).…”