The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of blending ratio of malted barley, maize, and roasted pea flour on complementary food quality and sensory acceptability. D- Optimal mixture design was used to generate 14 formulations. Each ingredient had 55-90% maize, 20-35% pea and 4-12% malted barley. Pretreatments like debranning of maize, roasting of pea and dehusking of malted barley were done. The three component-constrained mixture design was conducted using Design-Expert® 6 (Stat-Ease). Ash, protein, fat, fiber, moisture, and carbohydrate contents were found in between range of 1.5-2.5%, 13.0-18.5%, 1.8-2.5%, 3.06-4.45%, 5.0-6.5%, and 68.9-74.1%, respectively. Significant difference (P < 0.05) among the treatments was observed for protein, moisture, odor, flavor and sensory overall acceptability. Lack-of-fit was significantly different only for fat (R2 = 0.90). Thus, the model generated can predict all attributes except for fat. The optimum values of high nutrient content and sensory acceptability were observed in the range of 55.0-68.5%, 27.5-35.0%, and 4.0-10.0% for maize, pea, and malted barley respectively.
Keywords: Complementary food; maize; malted barley; proximate composition; roasted Pea; sensory quality.