Formulation and processing of gruels made from local ingredients, thin enough to flow by gravity in enteral tube feeding.

Designing enteral foods from local ingredients for tube feeding of low-income people who cannot eat orally is needed. Two processing methods, involving the addition of amylase or malt, were used to thin a blenderized tube feeding formula based on sorghum, sesame and soybean seeds. Two composite flours, either with higher carbohydrate (F1D) or higher lipid (F2D) contents were formulated to obtain an enteral food aimed at adults. To thin the formula enough for it to flow inside the feeding tube, increasing concentrations of amylase (0.27-2.17 g/100 g DM) were added to gruels F1D (F1DE) and F2D (F2DE) prepared at 25% DM. Sorghum malt was also added to F1D (F1DM) as an alternative source of amylase. But F1DE and F1DM flow times in a 50 cm feeding tube (10 Fr) remained much longer (up to 14 s) than that of the commercial enteral food (4 s). The F1DE and F1DM osmolalities (485 and 599 mOsmol/Kg water, respectively) were higher compared to that of F1D but remained within the range specified for adult enteral food. F1D, F1DE and F1DM gruels showed pseudoplastic behavior. Their loss ratio (tan δ ), elastic (G') and loss (G'') moduli were similar, but apparent viscosity, flow time in the feeding tube and consistency index (k) showed that F1DE was thinner than F1DM. Adding an incubation step before cooking of F1DM suspension allowed further thinning of the gruel, showing it is possible to formulate an enteral food using local ingredients that flows by gravity in the feeding tube.