Sensory, Proximate and Mineral Properties of Smart Baby-Led Weaning Foods from Millet, Soybean and Ripe Banana Flour Blends

Aim: The need for formulating and developing smart baby-led weaning (BLW) foods from millet, soybean and ripe banana flour blends as alternative complementary foods inspired this study, which had no documentation in literatures.

Place and Duration of Study: Department of Food Technology, Auchi Polytechnic, Auchi, Nigeria from June 2022 to January 2023.

Methodology: Smart BLW foods were formulated from millet, soybean and ripe banana flour blends and coded as WMF (100% whole millet flour), MSB1 (60% millet; 20% soybean; 20% ripe banana) and MSB2 (50% millet; 30% soybean; 20% ripe banana). The sensory, proximate and mineral compositions of the foods formulated were compared with those of commercial weaning food (CWF).

Results: MSB1 and MSB2 competed favourably with CWF in terms of texture, general acceptability, colour, aroma and taste attributes with high negative deviation most noticeable in WMF (P < 0.05), and exhibited acceptable shelf-life and stability. The ash contents ranged from 1.16±0.02% (WMF) to 2.83±0.02% (MSB2). Increase in fat content in MSB1 to CWF was ≈534%, MSB2 to CWF was ≈492%, MSB1 to WMF was ≈385% and MSB2 to WMF was ≈353% while their protein abundances were in the ratios 1:3.6 for CWF:MSB1, 1:5.9 for CWF:MSB2, 1:2.4 for MWF:MSB1 and 1:3.9 for MWF:MSB2. Generally, MSB1 and MSB2 were appropriate sources of Na, K, Ca, Mg and Zn compared to CWF and WMF in providing adequate intake (AI) and recommended daily allowance (RDA) of these minerals in both infants and children in the age classes of 0-6 months, 7-12 months and 1-3 years.

Conclusion: MSB1 and MSB2 exhibited better intrinsic properties than WMF when compared with CWF. MSB1, however had better general performances than MSB2 and therefore, was recommended as the best smart BLW food formulation from this research.