Biological evaluation for protein quality of supplementary foods based on popped cereals and legumes suitable for feeding rural mothers and children in India.

Eight different formulations of supplementary foods (FS) based on popped cereals (wheat, ragi, bajra and sorghum) and legumes (soy and bengalgram) were prepared. Four of the FS were produced with cereals, soy flour (SF) and bengalgram (BG) dhal and the other four were prepared with combinations of cereals and SF. These blends were evaluated for food efficiency ratio (FER), protein efficiency ratio (PER) and net protein utilization (NPU) using growing albino rats. Skim milk powder (SMP, standard reference protein) was used in the control diet. In general the FER (0.28 to 0.34), PER (2.7 to 2.9) and NPU (62 to 68) results of the FS were not significantly (p > 0.05) different among the FS groups or compared with FER (0.36), PER (3.0) and NPU (73.5) of the control SMP. It is evident from the results that all eight FS were nutritionally and biologically as good as SMP with regard to proximate composition, PER and NPU.