• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.466-472
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• 2016

The objectives of the study were to analyze the various nutrient contents of ready-to-use-supplemental-food (RUSF) developed with Eastern African ethnic plants and compare them with commercially available supplemental food (CASF) for infants. RUSF was made with three African plants, including Ficus sur, Amaranthus caudatus, and Prosopis juliflorafa and locally available food ingredients in DR Congo and Ethiopia and was cooked at $180^{\circ}C$ for 20 min in a conventional oven. Macronutrients were analyzed by the AOAC method. Contents of 17 amino acids were analysed with amino acid analyzer, and vitamin $B_1%$ niacin, vitamin $B_6$, and vitamin C were analyzed with HPLC. Isomers of vitamin E were analyzed by GC-FID. The price of RUSF was 0.133 USD per 100g. Contents of macronutrients were not significantly different between developed RUSF and CASF. Results of amino acid analysis showed that most amino acid contents were similar or higher in RUSF compared with CASF. However, glutamic acid and lysine contents were less in RUSF than in CASF. Vitamin E and vitamin $B_1$ contents were more than five times higher in RUSF (22.40, 6.26 mg/100 g, respectively) than in CASF (4.00, 0.80 mg/100 g, respectively). Niacin was about three times higher while vitamin $B_6$ was almost 20 times higher in RUSF than in CASF. However, ascorbic acid was significantly lower in RUSF (3.43 mg/100 g) than in CASF (42.08 mg/100 g). Our study found that the developed localized RUSF showed higher nutrient contents in most micronutrients analyzed except for ascorbic acid. Out of 17 amino acids, glutamic acid and lysine contents in RUSF were less than in CASF. Therefore, further study is needed in order to improve these nutrients contents.