Acceptability of complementary foods and breads prepared from zinc-fortified cereal flours among young children and adults in Senegal.

We completed a series of studies to assess the acceptability of zinc-fortified, cereal-based complementary foods and zinc-fortified wheat breads. Young children and their caregivers completed acceptability tests with complementary foods fortified with iron only (60 mg iron as ferrous fumarate per kilogram cereal flour), or the same level of iron and zinc (240 mg zinc as zinc oxide per kilogram cereal flour), and the caregivers completed triangle taste tests to compare the same products. A separate group of adult participants completed acceptability tests with wheat breads fortified with iron and folic acid (15 mg iron as ferrous fumarate per kilogram flour and 1.5 mg folic acid per kilogram flour) or the same levels of iron-folic acid and 2 levels of zinc (63 mg zinc or 126 mg zinc as zinc oxide per kilogram flour). Finally, a threshold test was administered to another group of adult participants to compare nonfortified wheat bread to breads fortified with zinc in 80 mg increments ranging from 80 to 400 mg zinc as zinc oxide per kilogram flour. All products were acceptable when compared to non-zinc-fortified equivalents, and were well liked by the respective participants. For the triangle tests, caregivers were not able to detect significant differences between products. For threshold tests, adult participants detected differences in breads prepared from fortified wheat flour at 80 mg, 160 mg, and 320 mg zinc per kilogram flour, but not at 240 mg and 400 mg zinc per kilogram flour, respectively, when compared to nonfortified bread equivalents. Zinc fortification of cereal flours in the ranges of fortification that were tested does not adversely affect the acceptability of complementary foods and breads prepared from these flours. Practical Application: Fortification of staple food products is a low-cost approach to deliver additional micronutrients (including zinc) to large segments of a population. Determining the acceptability of products fortified with zinc is an important step in the development of zinc fortification programs.

Effect of food processing on iron availability of African pearl millet weaning foods.

The effects of different cereal precooking process (roasting and extrusion cooking) on iron availability and protein digestibility of four African weaning foods were investigated using in vitro methods. In two weaning foods based on pearl millet, cowpea and peanut, the cereal was extruded (A) or roasted (B). In two other weaning foods having a similar composition, a low proportion of milk powder was added and the cereal extruded (C) or roasted (D). The mean +/- SD iron values (mg/100 g) were: A, 5.56 +/- 0.18; B, 9.12 +/- 0.93; C, 5.89 +/- 0.23; D, 9.04 +/- 0.85. When the pearl millet was roasted, the iron content was higher than in the extruded weaning foods (P < 0.01). However, the percent of available iron of the roasted weaning foods was very low (B, 1.64 +/- 0.01; D, 0.91 +/- 0.02). The iron availability of the extruded weaning foods, A and C, was 3.5 times and 6.5 times higher than the corresponding roasted weaning foods, B and D, respectively. This represented 332.4 +/- 4.4 and 375.1 +/- 5.8 micrograms of available iron/100 g for A and C, respectively versus 149.5 +/- 0.9 and 82.2 +/- 1.8 micrograms of available iron/100 g for B and D, respectively. No significant differences in polyphenol contents were found according to the precooking process of the cereal. The extruded weaning foods showed a higher protein digestibility of approximately 10% than the roasted ones (P < 0.05). A positive correlation was found between in vitro iron availability and protein digestibility (r = 0.976, P < 0.02). Despite a high content of iron, the iron availability of roasted pearl millet weaning foods was quite low. Extrusion cooking of the cereal improved the protein digestibility and iron availability of pearl millet weaning foods; however, the amount of available iron remained insufficient to meet the iron requirements of infants whatever the cereal processing.