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Production and Nutritional Evaluation of Liquefied Weaning Foods from Malted Sorghum, Quality Protein Maize, and Other Cereals

¹Graduate research assistant and professor, respectively, Departamento de Tecnología de Alimentos. ITESM - Campus Monterrey. Av. Eugenio Garza Sada 2501 Sur, C.P. 64849 Monterrey, NL, México. ²Corresponding author. E-mail: sserna@campus.mty.itesm.mx Phone: (8) 3284262. Fax: (8) 3284322.

Different concentrations of sorghum diastatic malt (SDM) were added to pregelatinized pastes from regular maize flour with the aim of hydrolyzing the starch to produce liquefied foods with 15% solids. Viscosities of the blends decreased as the concentration of SDM increased. Addition of 6.66% SDM based on total amount of solids reduced viscosity by ≈50% when compared with a food that did not contain any SDM. Addition of 33.3 or 46.6% SDM reduced viscosity by ≈70 or 75%, respectively. Most of the reduction in viscosity occurred within 1–3 min of incubation with warm water. Weanling rats were fed a combination 33.3% SDM and 66.6% of either quality protein maize (QPM), regular maize (RMZ) or decorticated pearl millet (DPM) to estimate protein efficiency ratios (PER), protein digestibility, biological value (BV), and net protein utilization (NPU). Rat growth was positively correlated with dietary lysine content and essential amino acid (EAA) scores; therefore, animals fed QPM weanling food had significantly higher (P < 0.05) protein digestibility corrected EAA scores, PER, BV, and NPU than counterparts fed diets based on RMZ or DPM. This demonstrates that it is feasible to produce nutritious liquefied weaning foods blending 33.3% SDM with 66.6% QPM using simple processing techniques.