Formulation of a drinkable peanut-based therapeutic food for malnourished children using plant sources

Abstract

High ingredient costs continue to hamper local production of therapeutic foods (TFs). Development of formulations without milk, the most expensive ingredient, is one way of reducing cost. This study formulated a ready-to-drink peanut-based TF that matched the nutrient composition of F100 using plant sources. Three least cost formulations namely, A, B and C were designed using computer formulation software with peanuts, beans, sesame, cowpeas and grain amaranth as ingredients. A 100 g portion of the TF provided 101–111 kcal, 5 g protein and 5.3–6.5 g fat. Consumer acceptability hedonic tests showed that the products were liked (extremely and moderately) by 62–65% of mothers. These results suggest that nutrient dense TFs formulated from only plant sources have the potential to be used in the rehabilitation phase of the management of malnourished children after clinical testing.

Keywords::

• F100
• least cost formulation
• computer formulation software

Declaration of interest: This research was funded by the USAID Peanut Collaborative Research Support Program and was carried out in a collaboration between School of Food Technology, Nutrition and Bio-Engineering, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda and the Department of Food Science and Technology, University of Georgia, Griffin, GA, USA.