Abstract

Weaning is a gradual stoppage of feeding a baby with the mother’s milk and start feeding the baby with semi-solid food such as maize, sorghum or millet which can be fermented to increase their nutrient content and carbohydrate digestibility. The weaning food was formulated by fortifying cereal (Sorghum) with legume (Cowpea) which had been cleaned, steeped in sterile distilled water for 24 h and germinated for 48 h at 30°C. The rootlet was removed and dried in oven at 60°C for 24 h and milled separately. The product was formulated at the ratio of 70:30 and fermented with the use of starter, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Lactobacillus plantarum in single and in mixed culture Lactobacillus Saccharomyces. The formulated blends were incubated at different temperatures and pH adjusted by the use of phosphate buffer and potentiometric confirmation. The analysis of the effect of temperature on nutrient composition showed that crude protein increases with fermentation while the ether extract, crude fibre and ash contents decreased. The highest crude protein content (19.5%) was recorded at 37°C in mixed culture gruel. The vitamin content also increase with temperature (25 to 37°C) and decreases at 40°C and the highest vitamin content was observed at 37°C in L. Saccharomyces blend. The vitamin content increased with fermentation and pH, and the highest was observed at pH 6.The optimum environmental conditions for the development of nutritious weaning food is therefore a fermentation temperature of 37°C at pH 6 for 48 h with a starter combination of L. plantarum and S. cerevisiae.

Key words: Weaning food, starter culture, fermentation, temperature and ph changes, nutritional composition.