Formulation of fortified instant weaning food from Musa paradisiaca (banana) and Eleusine coracana

Safreena Kabeer; Nagamaniammai Govindarajan; Preetha Radhakrishnan; Hanan F Alharbi; Musthafa Mohamed Essa; M Walid Qoronfleh

doi:10.3389/fnut.2023.1203955

Formulation of fortified instant weaning food from Musa paradisiaca (banana) and Eleusine coracana

Front Nutr. 2023 Jun 15:10:1203955. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2023.1203955. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Safreena Kabeer^{1

2}, Nagamaniammai Govindarajan^{1

3}, Preetha Radhakrishnan^{1

3}, Hanan F Alharbi⁴, Musthafa Mohamed Essa^{5

6}, M Walid Qoronfleh⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Food Process Engineering, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
² Department of Food Technology, Faculty of Engineering, Karpagam Academy of Higher Education, Coimbatore, India.
³ Department of Food Process Engineering, School of Bioengineering, College of Engineering and Technology, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
⁴ Department of Maternity and Child Health Nursing, College of Nursing, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Department of Food Science and Nutrition, CAMS, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman.
⁶ Ageing and Dementia Research Group, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman.
⁷ Research and Policy Division, Q3CG Research Institute (QRI), Ypsilanti, MI, United States.

Abstract

Weaning food is a soft, easily digestible type of food other than breast milk for infants aged 6 to 24 months. The present study was conducted to develop cereal-fruit-based complementary foods for infants and evaluate the nutritional quality of such types of foods. Few researchers have focused on formulating weaning foods from locally available, nutritious, and rich ingredients without nutrient loss to reduce malnutrition and infant morbidity rates. In this study, the formulated infant food was prepared from Musa paradisiaca (Nendran banana) and Eleusine coracana (ragi). Formulated weaning food was analyzed using various standard methods, demonstrating that it could provide adequate nutrients to growing infants for their proper growth and development. The shelf life of the weaning food was also studied for a period of 3 months at ambient conditions in two different packaging materials: aluminum and plastic (low-density polyethylene or LDPE), with the aluminum foil pouch exhibiting the best shelf life. This ready-to-serve food, which is formulated and fortified with natural ingredients containing essential macronutrients and micronutrients, could be regarded as highly effective supplementary food for infants. Furthermore, this development has the potential to introduce an affordable weaning product specifically targeted at low socioeconomic groups.

Keywords: banana; finger millet; fortification; infants; micronutrients; weaning food.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University Researchers Supporting Project number (PNURSP2023R441), Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.