Standardization and Organoleptic Evaluation of Energy Protein Dense Complementary Food

Malnutrition is a major health problem in developing countries contributing to infant mortality, lowered resistance to disease which stifles development. Protein-energy malnutrition generally occurs during the crucial transitional phase when children are weaned from liquid to semi-solid or solid foods. Children therefore require nutritionally-balanced calorie-dense foods due to increasing nutritional demands of growing body. Present study was aimed to develop and standardize complementary food based on locally available cereal, pulse, oilseed flour with optimum nutrition and evaluate sensory attributes of the formulations. Whole green gram, rice flakes, semolina and groundnut were selected for preparation of complementary food. Recipe of the complementary food mix and gulgule were standardized and subjected to organoleptic evaluation by a panel of 10 semi-trained judges using 9-point Hedonic rating scale. Organoleptic acceptability of developed complementary food mix and gulgule was 7.0 ± 0.05 and 7.26±0.13, respectively, which shows that they were liked moderately by panel members. The study successfully produced a nutritious and energy-dense diet with acceptable sensory attributes that can be easily prepared at home for meeting energy-protein requirements of infants. It is recommended that similar formulations of complementary foods can be tried out and popularized in the community, which are low cost and nutrientrich.