Determine the Proximate Composition of Pre-Gelatinized Barley Flour Supplemented with Sprouted Fababean and Carrot Powder for Use as Weaning Food.

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the proximate composition of pre-gelatinized barley flour supplemented with sprouted faba bean and dried carrot powder for uses as weaning food.  Protein energy malnutrition and vitamin A deficiency are the most documented problem in the country of Ethiopia. Developing of weaning foods in the country has a mile stone contribution for this problem. The effect of two factors, blending ratio (barley, faba bean and carrot) and faba bean sprouting duration for days 2 and 3 were studied. The experiment was conducted using custom design by JMP8 software. Mixture response surface methodology was applied for the analysis of data. Optimum value (16.01-16.22%) of protein was obtained at day three when proportion ranged from 50 to 65% barley, 30 to 35% of faba bean and 5 to 10% carrot. The moisture, ash, crude fiber, crude fat , crude protein and carbohydrate  content of the blended flours had ranged from 5.30 to 5.48%, 3.30 to 4.09%, 4.85 to 5.38%, 1.41 to 1.48%, 15.71 to 16.22% and 68.11 to 69.66%, respectively. The combined effect of barley, fababean and carrot powder blend were significant (P<0.0001) in all the responses analyzed except moisture which was significant at p< 0.05. Moisture and protein content had significantly (P<0.05) increased with the increase days of fababean sprouting duration. Whereas ash, crude fiber, fat and carbohydrate content significantly (P< 0.05) decreased with the increased days of fababean sprouting duration. Supplementing fafabean and carrot to barley (control) significantly (P< 0.05) increased the moisture, ash, and crude fiber and protein contents of the blended products and decreased the fat and carbohydrate contents.  In general, proportion of barley from 50 to 65%, fababean from 25 to 35% and carrot 10 to 15% were found to be an optimum level for both nutritional and sensory acceptability of the pre-gelatinized barley based weaning foods.

Keywords: weaning food, fat, sprouting, protein, pre-gelatinize