Author(s):

A Anand, YS Dhaliwal and R Verma

Abstract: Most of the requirement of weaning foods is being met through commercially produced weaning foods prepared by various processes which are either complicated or too expensive Therefore, an attempt was made to develop less costly but nutritionally excellent weaning products. The study was undertaken with the objective to formulate and evaluate nutritional characteristics of weaning food mixes prepared from blends contained underutilized crops and further enriched with dehydrated apple. So various formulations of weaning food mixes with different proportion of flour of under-utilized crops viz. amaranth, buckwheat, rice bean and adzuki bean were used which were further supplemented with 10 percent dried apple and 15 percent of skimmed milk powder and 15 percent of sugar each. The study revealed that the supplemented weaning food mixes are economical, have better functional properties, improved nutritional profile with acceptable sensory properties. Different formulations have been standardized using different proportions of amaranth, buckwheat and adzuki bean in different ratios. These mixes were rich in protein, fibre and contained good amount of vitamin-C. The iron, copper, manganese and zinc contents also improved with supplementation of dehydrated apple. The sensory evaluation on nine point hedonic scale revealed that apple supplemented weaning food mixes were highly acceptable for colour, flavor, texture, taste and overall acceptability when tasted by trained group of panels.

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