Nutritional Quality of Enriched Bitter-Cassava Flour Porridge (Manihot esculenta) for Feeding Infants and Young Children (6-23 months) in South Sudan

¹Department of Food Technology and Nutrition, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda

²Department of Food Science and Technology, School of Applied and Industrial Sciences (SAIS), University of Juba, Juba, South Sudan

*Corresponding author: Hedwig Acham, Department of Food Technology and Nutrition, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, Phone No: +256772330240, E-mail: [email protected]

Received Date: August 12, 2024

Published Date: August 31, 2024

Citation: Bojo OK, et al. (2024). Nutritional Quality of Enriched Bitter-Cassava Flour Porridge (Manihot esculenta) for Feeding Infants and Young Children (6-23 months) in South Sudan. Mathews J Nutr Diet. 7(3):41.

Copyrights: Bojo OK, et al. © (2024).

ABSTRACT

Micronutrient deficiencies affect 40-60% of infants (6-11 months) and 20-40% of young children (12-23 months) in developing countries, including South Sudan, where 25% are vitamin A deficient and many others lack iron. These deficiencies are partly due to diets low in vitamin A and iron, such as those based on cassava, especially bitter high-cyanide varieties. This study aimed to improve the nutritional quality of bitter-cassava flour "Lenga Tome" for feeding of infants and young children (6-23 months). Four porridge composites were formulated with varying ratios of cassava flour, spinach, carrots, and green grams. The nutritional contribution of these composites to iron and provitamin A was evaluated. Results showed that the enriched flour had significantly low cyanide content (<10 ppm), high contributions to the recommended dietary allowances for iron and provitamin A, and increased bioavailability of these nutrients. The iron contribution ranged from 98.08-199.26%, while provitamin A contribution ranged from 78.24-340.44%. The study concludes that the enriched cassava-based porridge composites, with their low cyanide content and high bioavailability of key micronutrients, could be used to substitute use of plain bitter-cassava in child feeding and help alleviate iron and vitamin A deficiencies among infants and young children in South Sudan.

Keywords: Bioavailability, Iron, Provitamin A, Biter cassava “Lenga Tome”.