Authors: Lusamaki Mukunda François, Moleka Mosisi, Piedade Lucas Alexandre, Buhendwa Mirindi Victor, Irene Stuart Torrié De Carvalho.
One of the main micronutrient deficiencies in children under five years is vitamin A deficiency (VAD). This study aimed to produce biscuit from composite wheat-orange- eshed sweet potato flour (OFSP), palm oil and eggs and to determine its contribution to the diet of children on the age group of 1-3 years. For the biscuit formulations codified ‘’AE, BE and CE’’ were prepared by partial replacement of wheat with OFSP flour in proportion at 0%, 30% and 50% respectively, and margarine by crude palm oil 1/3 (33%), this combination was supplemented by 20g of egg. While the control biscuit codified A0, was prepared using 100g of wheat flour and 30g of margarine. The carotenoid contents of the prepared biscuit were determined by using the method describe by Rodriguez Amaya and Kimura (2004). The analysis of variance was used to determine the significant difference in the samples with a significant level of 0.05.
Results of the study revealed that the carotenoid content in the biscuits ranged from 96.03 μg/100g to 15251 μg/100g (86.82μg/100g to 12200.8μg/100g of beta-carotene) and the Retinol Activity Equivalent (RAE) was reported from 6.4 to 1016.7μg RAE/100g in the control and the formulation CE respectively. The protein content ranged from 5.48 to 7.91%, and the energy level was reported from the 468.46 to 484.6 Kcal/100g in the biscuits. All biscuits were in the acceptable range (6.36 to 7.63) related to the sensory score.
From the results of study, biscuits formulation appears to be efficient, since it produced biscuits of high nutritional values within the RAE range which could prevent the VAD in young children since 2 to 5 portions of biscuits could cover the retinol equivalent for children aged 1-3 years- old.
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