Research Article published by Canadian Center of Science and Education Vol. 6, No. 6; 2017
Evaluation of the quality of complementary
flour and its nutritional adequacy in relation to infant’s nutritional
requirements was done to four different types of complementary flour (composite cereals with groundnuts, maize,
millet and sorghum). The collected samples were analysed for determination of macronutrient, micronutrients
and phytate content. The mean protein content in all types of complementary f lour was 7.30 ± 2.52 g/100 g. A
significant difference in protein content between composite cereals ( p ≤ 0.001) and other types of cereals based
foods was observed. Fat and iron content were found to be inadequate in all types of complementary flours.
Phytate content rang ed from 59.47 1176.8 mg/100 g, the highest content was observed in sorghum. On the
other hand, the mean iron and zinc content in all types of complementary flour was 5.25 ± 1.35 mg/100 g and
2.99 ± 1.36 mg/100 g respectively. The molar ratios of phytate: iron and phytate: zinc were at a level that would
tend to inhibit bioavailability of iron and zinc in 97% and 45% of analysed samples respectively. An association
between anemia and phytate: iron molar ratio (AOR = 4.2, 95%, 1.2 6.9) was observed. The quality and
adequacy of nutrients in cereal-based complementary flour has shown to be inadequate and likely to be
compromised by the presence of phytate.