Development of nutritionally enriched instant weaning food and its safety aspects

Malnutrition is persisting among children in Bangladesh due to lack of proper weaning foods. A highly nutritive instant weaning food was prepared in our laboratory by using locally available food resources with the aim to ensure the availability of low cost weaning food in Bangladesh. The developed food was evaluated for their nutritional characteristics and microbiological quality. The food contained the major nutrients like moisture, ash, fat, protein, fiber, carbohydrate and energy 2.43%, 2.26%, 11.32%, 15.98%, 1.06%, 75.35% and 456.6 kcal/ 100 g, respectively which were comparable to those of the three good quality imported commercial weaning foods F-1, F-2 and F-3. The vitamin A, iron and calcium contents were significantly different (p<0.05) than the commercial foods. The highest protein efficiency ratio and feed efficiency ratio were shown in the rats feed on the prepared weaning food than the imported commercial weaning foods. The overall bacteriological status of the prepared and the imported commercial weaning foods were observed to be satisfactory. The costs of the developed weaning food is considerably cheaper than the three imported commercial weaning foods of same quality and suitable for low income people of Bangladesh.   Key words: Instant, low cost, weaning food, cereals, rice.