Sensory, Chemical and Biological Evaluation of some Childrens Foods Fortified with Dates, Legumes and Vegetables

(Mr. Attia Abdul Hadi and Ahmed bin Ali Hassan and Khaled Mohammad Yousuf)

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Abstract

Children in developing countries suffer from malnutrition because of the shortage of suitable food during pre-school age. This study aims to prepare some children s high nutritional value low priced food blends. For this purpose, eight pre-school childrens food blends were prepared. Four of these blends contained wheat flour (72% extraction) while the remained four contained rice flour as carbohydrate source. All blends contained the same proportion of legumes powders (bean, lentil, and chickpea), skim milk powder, dried date paste, sugar. Vanilla was added at a rate of 0.7g per 100g blend as a flavoring agent. Blends also varied in the type of used vegetables (carrot, potatoes, and /or taro). The blends were sensory evaluated by children as well as their caregivers. The sensory acceptable blends were evaluated chemically and biologically using laboratory animals. The results showed that there is a significant symmetry between the sensory evaluation by face expressions of children and that of their caregivers in many blends. The blend No. 1 containing carrot and blend No. 8 containing the three vegetables mixture were the most palatable and acceptable ones. The chemical and biological evaluation of the acceptable blends comparison with commercial sample showed that, there were no side effects on the vital functions of the body organs or the complete blood picture of laboratory animals. Key Words: Biological and chemical assessment, Childrens Baby foods, Date paste powder, Sensory evaluation, Vegetables blends
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