Evaluation of complementary food formulations obtained from different extruded cereal mixtures for infant nutrition

This study focuses on the modification of ready-to-eat food mixtures (complementary food) provided by the World Food Programme (WFP) as nutritional support for infants and children under the age of five. The thesis is based on two mixtures with wheat-soy (WS) and corn-soy (CS) as their primary components. The aim was to formulate lower-cost powdered food mixtures by reducing the amount of soy and increasing the amount of pregelatinized cereal flour while keeping the vitamin and mineral content constant. The wheat-soy based products contained 70% wheat and 30% soy, while the corn-soy based products contained 70% corn and 30% soy. A total of 12 different blend samples were prepared, and analyses were conducted on ash, protein, fat, moisture, sieve, Bostwick consistency, water activity, and color. By adding pregelatinized wheat or corn flour obtained through the extrusion process, it was observed that in the products designed to be lower-cost, reducing the soy content resulted in a slight decrease in protein and fat levels. However, in terms of other quality parameters, a maximum of 3.8% ash, 5.09% moisture, and 0.32 water activity were measured, and the minimum Bostwick flow rate was found to be 111.67 mm/30s, meeting WFP's standard of 100 mm/30s. Initially, it was determined that wheat-soy mixtures up to the WS-76 level did not cause significant quality degradation. In the corn-soy based products, increasing the amount of corn used in production led to a drop in protein content below WFP's criteria. As a result, it was concluded that adding extruded wheat flour to certain samples could increase the cereal content by 8.5% without falling outside of WFP's nutritional spectrum and that the formulation of these food mixtures could provide a 9% cost reduction compared to the control sample.