Development and evaluation of ready to use instant food mixes for infants and young children

Abstract

To meet out the nutritional requirement of infants and young children and to get rid of malnutrition ready to use instant food mixes were developed by using locally available food materials like peanut, ragi, wheat, rice, maize, sugar, milk powder and ghee. The ingredients were processed by appropriate methods like cleaning, germinating, drying, roasting and grinding. The proximate composition of the developed ready to use instant food mixes has been found in the range of 1.43 to 1.68% moisture, 24.50 to 26.55% fat, 2.12 to 2.412% ash, 0.82 to 1.06% fibre, 10.20 to 10.28% protein and 57.50 to 59.00% carbohydrate. Zinc and iron content ranges from 2-4mg and 0.2-4mg per 100g respectively. It was found in all four treatments after 6 months of storage in the range of 1-2×103 cfu/ml. All the different combinations of food were extremely liked with overall acceptability score of 7-9 and 3-5.