Processed weaning foods for tropical climates

Abstract

Weaning foods must bridge the gap between breast-feeding and an ‘adult' family diet. Infants aged 6-12 months are a major group of weaning food consumers. Their energy and protein requirements were used as a starting point to develop a strategy for the home or small-industrial scale manufacture of weaning foods. In addition such food must have an ‘easy-to-swallow' consistency, and be microbiologically safe when consumed. On the other hand the level of anti-nutritional factors must be minimised. Ingredients must be locally available and acceptable. These would usually include a staple cereal or starchy tuber. The protein quantity and quality of the product can be optimised by adding legumes (beans, pulses) on the basis of their lysine content. Major problems to be solved include the bulkiness caused by starch gelatinisation and removal of the anti-nutritional factors which occur naturally in legumes. In addition, limited facilities for food preparation and storage allow contamination and rapid proliferation of micro-organisms which create risks of food-borne illness including diarrhoea. Several simple technologies are traditionally employed for the processing of cereals, tubers and legumes. These include roasting, germination and fermentation. Since these treatments have different effects on the quality characteristics of the final product, a combination of operations would therefore be a promising approach to optimise product quality at a minimum cost.