Abstract:
Childhood under nutrition during the first two years of life has been associated with
irreversible harm and is linked to higher rates of morbidity, mortality, impaired
cognitive ability and poor school performance in children. Low nutrient dense
complementary foods are amongst the main causes of childhood malnutrition in
developing countries. Thus, the use of locally available nutrient dense foods to improve
infants nutrition is of considerable importance. A study to develop and assess sensory
properties and consumer acceptability of nutrient dense porridge form locally available
foods for infants in Tanzania was carried out in Morogoro region. Five formulations each
containing soybeans, amaranth grains, pumpkin seeds and orange fleshed sweet
potatoes (SAPO1-SAPO5) at different ratios were developed. The five developed
formulations and two control samples were subjected to quantitative descriptive
analysis (QDA) and consumer acceptability tests.With exception of oiliness, significant
differences (p≤0.05) were observed between samples tested for all attributes. The
formulated samples had significantly higher mean intensity scores of 5.4± 1.67-5.6±
1.67 for aroma, 5.1 ±1.46 -7.0 ±1.44 for hue, 5.3±1.75 - 5.6±1.63 for sweetness and
4.2±1.85-4.6±1.98 for oiliness than control samples. Control samples had higher
texture values than formulated samples. Consumer groups showed different acceptability
for control and formulations. Mothers preffered control samples to formulations contrary
to students who preferred formulated samples to control samples. Furthermore, all
formulations had higher scores in aroma, sweetness and oiliness compared to control
groups, thickness and grittiness were higher in control groups than formulations, while
SAPO 3, 4 and 5 had higher scores of color hue than other samples. SAPO5 was the most
accepted formulation by both mothers and students. This suggests that its ingredients ratio
produced a most accepted product and hence it can be recommended for adoption.
