Malting technology in the development of safe and sustainable complementary composite food from cereals and legumes

Malnutrition is the leading cause of infant under-five deaths in the developing countries. According to recent Nigeria National Demographic and Health Survey, the proportion of underweight children under five years was 36%, including 12% severely underweight, stunting 43%, and wasting 9%. Factors like supplementation of breast milk with cereals porridges that have high phytate acid content which bind essential nutrients were identified as underlying cause of malnutrition. Hence, the principles of malting technology to produce phytase enzyme (orthophosphoric-monoester phosphohydrolase, EC 3.1.3.2) which degrades phytatic acid was employed in this study to develop a complementary composite food from malted maize, sorghum and soy beans. The results from phytate analysis showed a significant reduction in the phytic acid content (from 8.35±0.17- 1.59±0.32grams) for unmalted and malted samples respectively. Also the in vitro iron and zinc absorption increased by 82 and 84% respectively after malting. Zinc, an essential component of metalloenzymes is required to curb stunting and wasting and enhance infant brain development. Therefore, malting an economic agricultural technology was applied in developing sustainable and utilisable food for infants from cereals and legumes, in a bid to curb malnutrition and its devastating effects on the Nigerian child.