Vol. 7, Issue 3 (2018)

Author(s):
Awsi Jan, Monika Sood, Julie D Bandral, PR Hussain, Tsering Norzom, Ambreena Nazir and Lubna Masoodi

Abstract:
Weaning foods were formulated using varying amounts of raw materials by considering nutritive and caloric values of each ingredient in order to meet the nutrient requirement of infants. The brown rice, mungbean, apple pulp and walnut flour were blended separately in different ratios with each other along with 3 g of skim milk powder. The blended mixtures of weaning foods were packed in aluminium laminates to monitor the changes in sensory and microbial composition and were stored for a period of 6 months at ambient temperature (32 ± 2 ⁰C). On the basis of organoleptic evaluation of weaning foods, treatment T₅ (70:20:5:5:BR:MB:APP:WP) was adjudged as the best treatment having highest mean score of 7.98, 7.71 and 7.68 for colour, taste and overall acceptability, respectively. The highest total plate counts of 0.49×10²(c.f.u/g) was recorded in treatment T₁(100:0:0:0:BR:MB:APP:WP) followed by 0.42×10² (c.f.u/g) in treatment T₂(85:5:5:5:BR:MB:APP:WP) and by 0.36×10² (c.f.u/g) was in treatment T₃(80:10:5:5:BR:MB:APP:WP) and the lowest of 0.14×10² (c.f.u/g) was recorded in treatment T₇(60:30:5:5:BR:MB:APP:WP) but within the safe limits (not more than 10,000/g) as per legal standards for cereal.