Nutritional Quality of Weaning Foods Formulated from Maize Gruel 'Ogi' and Crayfish Using Combined Traditional Processing Technology

Aims: To investigate the nutritional quality of weaning foods produced from maize gruel 'ogi’ and crayfish using combined traditional processing techniques (germination, fermentation and toasting).

Study Design: Randomized block design.

Place and Duration of Study: Department of Food Science and Technology, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria, between January 2013 and November 2014.

Methodology: Maize grains were germinated at room temperature for three days after which they were fermented for 24 h. The maize grains were milled into slurry and divided into two portions. The first portion was oven-dried at 50°C and milled into flour while the second portion was toasted at 80°C and milled into flour. The two flours were separately mixed with crayfish powder to obtain oven-dried crayfish-ogi blend and toasted crayfish-ogi blend. The microbiological quality of the blends was determined. The nutritional qualities of the crayfish enriched ogi blends were assessed biologically using animal feeding experiment to determine the growth rate, feed intake, protein quality parameters and haematological properties. A commercial weaning food (cerelac) and traditional weaning food, ordinary ogi (maize gruel), were used as control diets.

Results: The total mesophilic bacteria count of the ogi blends ranged from 1.2 to 2.5x 103 cfu/g. Mold (1.0 x 103 cfu/g) were found in both oven-dried and toasted crayfish enriched ogi blends. Yeasts were found only in oven-dried enriched ogi blend (1.0 x 103cfu/g). Coliform, Staphylococcus and Salmonella were not detected in all the formulated diets. The growth rate of animals fed with crayfish enriched-ogi blends were lower than those fed with the cerelac, but higher than those fed with ordinary ogi. The protein efficiency ratio of animals fed with crayfish enriched ogi blends was similar (p= 0.05) to those fed with cerelac diet. The net protein ratio, true digestibility, biological value and net protein utilization of animals fed with crayfish enriched ogi diets were significantly lower (p˂0.05) than those fed with cerelac diet. The weight of the heart, liver, spleen and kidney of animals fed with crayfish-enriched ogi blends were significantly higher (p=0.05) than those fed with ordinary ogi but similar to the rats fed with casein and cerelac diets. The haematological variables of animals fed with crayfish enriched ogi diets, commercial weaning food (cerelac) and casein diet were not significantly (p>0.05) influenced by the dietary treatment.

Conclusion: Crayfish enriched ogi has potential as a functional weaning food with adaptable production technology (toasting) especially among rural dwellers.