Nutritional composition, microbial status, functional and sensory properties of infant diets formulated from cooking banana fruits (Musa spp, ABB genome) and fermented bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranean L. Verdc) seeds

Protein‐energy malnutrition is regarded as one of the public health problems in many parts of developing countries. One of the factors responsible is poverty, which has reduced quality of dietary intakes of many homes, particularly children. Therefore, this study aims at formulating weaning food from locally available food materials using traditional processing methods.

The cooking banana and bambara groundnut seeds were purchased from local market in Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria. The cooking bananas were peeled manually and sliced into pieces length wise, oven‐dried at 60 °C for 24 h, dried, milled and sieved through a 0.4 mm wire mesh screen. The undehulled bambara groundnut (BG) seeds were cleaned, cooked for 1 h, dehulled and fermented for four days using traditional methods. The fermented BG samples were oven dried, milled and sieved. The food samples were mixed in ratio of 90:10, 80:20, 70:30 and 60:40 of cooking banana and BG flour, respectively. Nutrend (commercial formula) and ogi (corn gruel, traditional weaning food) were used as control. The samples were subjected into chemical, physical properties (water absorption capacity, least gelation and swelling capacity) and sensory attributes (taste, aroma, colour, texture and overall acceptability) using standard methods.

Of all the developed food samples CBG₃ (70 per cent of cooking banana and 30 per cent of BG flour mixed) was rated highest; and the amount of CBG₃ needed to supply the nutritional requirements of infant was almost within the range of nutrend. The microbial and antinutrient level of the food samples were relatively low and within the tolerable range for animal consumption.

It can be concluded that the nutritional composition of cooking banana can be enhanced through fermented BG flour supplementation. The nutritional composition of the food sample containing 70 per cent cooking banana and 30 per cent BG flour is adequate to support child growth and development. Hence, it can be used as a substitute for the expensive commercial weaning formula.