[In vitro digestibility of a milk substitute produced with uncooked flour]. / Evaluación de la digestibilidad in vitro de un sustituto lácteo fabricado con harinas no precocidas.

Milk substitutes are used for the breakfast of the recipients of the National School Feeding Programme in Chile. The major ingredients of milk substitutes are milk, sugar and cereal flours. The technical specifications to produce this type of food state, beside their proportions, that the flours must be precooked. This requisite is controlled by determining the gelatinization degree which must be 92% as a minimum. At present, a cheaper new alternative of milk substitute fabricated with uncooked flours and containing an enzymatic preparation has been presented to the Programme. It is postulated that when reconstituted in water under the manufacturer's directions (85 degrees C, 5 min settling time) precooking of the flours is reached. The objective of this work was to evaluate the in vitro digestibility, the effect of the enzymatic preparation (molecular size of starch and dextrose equivalent) and the degree of gelatinization of this product (MSE) when reconstituted under different temperatures and settling times. The same milk substitute but without the enzyme preparation was used as Control. In vitro digestibility (VD) of MSE was 93.8 when reconstituted at 85 degrees C/5 min. settling time. VD decreased at lower temperatures (p > 0.05) to 85.5% (75 degrees C), 82.2% (50 degrees C), 33.0% (40 degrees C) and 41.4% (20 degrees C). VD showed a significant increase when settling time was raised to 30 minutes but only at reconstitution temperatures > 60 degrees C. It was observed the enzyme present in MSE shows a 92.1% of the total potential activity when MSE is reconstituted at 85 degrees C/5 min. The degree of gelatinization, DG, ranged between 42.6% (40 degrees C) and 93.8% (85 degrees C) for 5 min settling time. These values increased after 30 min settling time. VD and DG values for Control were similar to MSE for all the conditions evaluated. It is concluded that both MSE and Control have a good in vitro digestibility and degree of gelatinization when the manufacturer's directions are followed. These results suggest that under these reconstitution conditions precooking of the flours could not be necessary and that the incorporation of enzyme in the formulation has the role of improving some physico chemical characteristics such as the viscosity of the substitute once reconstituted.

[Formulation, fabrication, and evaluation of a cow's milk formula to Complementary Feeding National Program in Chile]. / Formulación, fabricación y evaluación de una fórmula láctea para el Programa Nacional de Alimentación Complementaria en Chile.

The complementary feeding national programme (PNAC) delivers 2 kg-month of dried full-fat cow's milk (LP) to 0-1 year old infants. The purpose of this work was to design, produce and evaluate nutrient stability and shelf life of a modified LP milk formula (LPM), which seems nutritionally more adequate for infants and is of similar cost than LP, to be included into the PNAC. LPM has the following attributes: P% 12.0 (LP 21.8%): casein/whey proteins ratio: 40 to 50/60 to 50 (LP 80/20); more digestible fats; essential fatty acids: > or = 4% of total calories; vitamins and minerals which cover 100% daily requirements for 0 to 6 months old infants; protein and energy can be modulated between 1.5 and 2.25 g/100 ml and 50-75 kcal/100 ml respectively. Forty tons of LPM were produced in accordance with our specifications for a field study. Quality controls on the product showed the production feasibility of such a formula at a lower price than LP. To determine shelf life, periodical analysis of peroxides, available lysine, ascorbic acid and linoleic acid were carried out in LPM stored for 1 year at 20 degrees C and 37 degrees C. It was found that LPM has an optimum shelf life of 7 months when packed in the same material that is now being in use for LP.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Haemoglobin-fortified cereal: an alternative weaning food with high iron bioavailability.

Extruded rice flour was fortified with 5 per cent bovine haemoglobin concentrate (BHC). The amino acid score of the product was 59 per cent. The protein efficiency ratio (PER) for the fortified cereal alone was 1.4; however, when given as a mixed diet of cereal and humanized milk (providing 41 and 59 per cent of the protein, respectively) PER was 2.6 (casein standard = 2.5). Iron absorption studies were performed with a double isotope technique, on 10 infants 8-10 months of age. Geometric mean absorption of the rice-BHC iron was 14.2 per cent, as measured with a tag of 55Fe-haemoglobin. The 59Fe-ferrous ascorbate reference dose had a mean absorption of 38.5 per cent. The use of a haem-iron fortified cereal as a weaning food seems feasible and advantageous, supplying an appropriate amount of absorbed iron, an adequate energy density, and a protein which could complement milk protein.

Prevention of vitamin A deficiency by fortification of sugar. A field study.

The small amount of vitamin A in the diet of people living in some regions of Chile can be increased by adding this vitamin to sugar. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of a sugar fortification program, vitamin A fortified sugar was distributed to four indian villages in the mountainous region of Africa, whose inhabitants showed a severe vitamin A deficiency. The results of this study demonstrate that sugar fortification program is able to correct vitamin A deficiency by elevating the vitamin intake and consequently improve the circulating retinol, without substantially increasing the cost or modigying the organoleptic characteristics of sugar.