The application of protein concentrates from locally available legumes in the development of weaning foods.

The effect of mixing different sources of vegetable proteins from legumes in the preparation of infant weaning foods was investigated. Melon, cowpea and soya as sole protein sources or as a mixture were fed to 60 albino rats. A milk powder-based commercial product (Cerelac) was used as control diet. The mixture of the vegetable protein diet compared favorably with the control diet in terms of growth rate, protein efficiency ratio (PER) and net protein ratio (NPR) and also ensured optimum nitrogen content in liver, kidney and muscle tissues. In contrast the use of individual protein sources failed to support satisfactory growth and were inferior to those in animals fed with the control or mixed diets. It was thus concluded that in the developing countries an application of such a mixture of vegetable proteins may be suitable in the preparation of weaning foods.