Formulation, Nutritional value, and Shelf stability of House Cricket-Blended Flours as Potential Complementary Foods

Abstract

Undernutrition, due to the poor quality of complementary foods, among children between 6 – 23 months remains a nutritional burden in sub-Saharan Africa. Strategies such as food-to-food fortification, and supplementation, produce complementary foods that are either low in nutrient density or largely unsustainable. However, sub-Saharan Africa has a high potential of sustainable production of underutilized alternative foods such as edible insects. In order to demonstrate the potential of edible insects in designing complementary foods, house cricket, Acheta domesticus, was used in this study as an animal-source food to improve the nutritional value of maize and millet. Based on recommended nutrient intake for proteins in complementary foods, three composite flours were formulated using maize, millet, house crickets, and orange-fleshed sweet potatoes (OFSP). Proximate composition was determined using standard AOAC methods. Iron and zinc were quantified using atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS). Total carotenoids were quantified using UV/Vis spectrophotometry and shelf stability was determined following standard methods for determination of acid values, peroxide values and total plate counts (TPC). The results showed that maize and millet contained 6.43±0.11 and 4.83±0.59 g/100g of protein, 4.33±1.53 and 2.67±0.58 g/100g of crude fat, 481.00±18.5 and 97.00±10.5 µg/100g of total carotenoids respectively. CriMiOFSP, CriMaOFSP and CriOFSP contained 15.9±0.36, 15.9±0.46 and 14.93±0.55 g/100g of protein meeting the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) of 11g and 13g of protein per day for 6-12 months and 1-3-year-old children respectively. The formulated flours had 6.17±0.29, 7.33±0.58 and 9.00±0.50 g/100g of crude fat in CriMiOFSP, CriMaOFSP and CriOFSP and 1117.30±64.70, 1333.80±81.90 and 2035.70±68.50 µg/100g of total carotenoids in the same order. All the formulated flours met the RDA for zinc of 3mg/day for 6-23 months old children but not the RDA of iron of 11 mg/day for 6-12 months infants. CriOFSP met the RDA for iron of 7mg/day for 1-3-year-old children. The acid values ranged from 2.9 - 3.6 mg KOH/g. Peroxide values (0 - 5.9 meq O2/Kg) were less than 10 meq/Kg, a limit above which food is regarded unsatisfactory for human consumption. TPC increased from 4 log cfu, 4.30 log cfu, and 4.2 log cfu for CriMiOFSP, CriMaOFSP and CriOFSP respectively, exceeding the limit of 6 log cfu in the second week for all the flours when kept at room temperature. The results of this study show that maize and millet are not sufficient as complementary foods and house cricket blended flours being more nutritious and chemically stable, offer a better alternative to commonly used complementary foods