Sensory Evaluation and Proximate Composition of Homemade Complementary Food (HCF), Made Using Milk Combinations of Plant and Animal Origin

Sensory analysis tools are the classic means for guaranteeing sensory quality, assessing acceptability, and recognizing faults in food products. Powerful sensory analysis techniques, were applied to evaluate Homemade Complementary Food (HCF) using milk combination of plant and animal origin. An experimental but descriptive method of research was used with Mubi as the study area. Milk from animal, (cow and goat) as well as milk from plant origin (soya beans milk,) was used. Milk from animal source was pasteurized using Vat pasteurization process (FDA, 2015) while quality soya beans milk was used to prepare milk of plant origin. Blended banana was also used as part of the home made complementary food alongside milk on a 50:50 ratio. A 15 member trained panel made up of mothers with children under the age of 5 years and currently breast feeding were the respondents, a sensory evaluation sheet based on the 9-point hedonic scale was used for scoring. Proximate analysis of sample was done using standard methods, AOAC (2000). Data was analyzed statistically using means and standard deviation. Results showed that sample B4 (a combination of cow, goat, and soya beans milk + blended banana slurry) had the best sensory attributes of appearance (8.00 ±1.32), taste (7.44 ± 1.01) and overall acceptability (8.00 ± 1.22), while sample B5 (goat milk + blended banana slurry) had the best sensory attributes of colour (8.00 ± 0.71) and aroma (7.78 ± 0.83). The proximate composition showed that the home made complementary food contained protein above (10.97 ± 0.00) from complementary food, this is far above the recommended 6.2 g/day, required for children 23 months and below assuming the child has an average breast milk intake daily, and fat (2.76 ± 0.00) from complementary foods, was within the recommendation range, required for children age between 9 - 11 months, also assuming the child is on average breast milk intake daily. These results can be of significant benefits in research, and in food processing industries, globally. Further research in other regions is needed to compare the obtained results in terms of its variance.