Nutritional, functional and sensory characteristics of an infant puree food from pre-treated pumpkin flesh (Curcubita pepo L.), soybean (Glycine max L.) and spinach leaves (Spinacia oleracea)

Abstract

Complementary foods are essential during childhood. They permit and ensure growth and equally alleviate infant malnutrition. The use of locally available foods (Pumpkin, Soybean, and Spinach leaves) for the formulation of complementary foods is recommended as it could improve its accessibility. This study was aimed at formulating an infant puree food with good nutritional quality and an acceptable viscosity. Pumpkin, spinach leaves, and soybean were purchased from the central market of Ngaoundere and subjected to various treatments in the laboratory. Pumpkin flesh was fermented by Lactobacillus plantarum, spinach leaves were steamed, and soybean was soaked in water and latter roasted. The proximate composition of these foodstuff was determined before and after treatments. Two basic purees (PI and PII) were prepared from the pre-treated foods and five other formulations obtained from these basic purees were: (PI4, PI5, PII3, PII4, and PII5) thus corresponding to the addition of water at various volume percentages: 40, 50, 30, 40 and 50 respectively. The proximate composition and sensorial evaluation (taste, flavour, colour, smoothness, viscosity, appearance and overall acceptability) of theses purees were investigated. The results show that fermenting pumpkin flesh led to a significant (p < 0.05) increase in its soluble sugar content by 92.17 % while steam blanching increases the iron content in spinach leaves by 38.83 %. The viscosities of the derived purees produced were within 3280–4460 mPa s. All the formulated infant purees were poor in soluble sugar thus revealing that they all had a low energy value. This suggests that addition of sucrose during formulation could be required. Puree formulations PI4, PI5 and PII3 met the recommendations of WHO/FAO in terms of proteins (13.62 g/100g), fats (10.67 g/100g), and iron (10.00 mg/100g) content. We observed that the overall acceptability of formulated purees was significantly dependent on their taste and sugar content. Puree PII3 made of 85 % fermented pumpkin flesh, 7.5 % steamed spinach leaf paste, 7.5 % of soybean powder and 30 % of water by volume was the most appreciated by the panellists.

Keywords

• Complementary foods
• Infant puree formulation
• Fermented pumpkin flesh
• Seamed spinach leaves
• Soaked roasted soybean grain