Development of Peanut Flour Based Value Added Products for Malnourished Children

Protein energy malnutrition is the major concern of nutrition. Malnutrition is an underlying cause of death of 2.6 million children each year - one-third of the global total of children's deaths. Partially defatted peanut flour, is a protein-rich, inexpensive and underutilized product that offers the same health and dietary benefits of peanut with less fat and can be utilized for making value added products to eradicate malnutrition among children. It was prepared by crushing roasted peanuts to extract oil and then grinding the left over meal into flour. Partially defatted peanut flour was blended with cereals and pulses for making five value added products and were evaluated for sensory quality by using nine point hedonic scale and nutritional composition by using standard methods. The acceptable percentage of peanut flour was 5% for soup, 10% for pancake, kheer and 30% for vadiya and papad. Overall acceptability score was 7.2, 8.14, 8.51, 8.12 and 8.4. The developed products were found to be highly nutritious as soup gives 336.39 Kcal of energy, 14.53% protein, 692.73 mg calcium and 9.15 mg of iron. Pancake gives 458.53 Kcal of energy, 22.75% of protein, calcium 56.00 mg and iron 4.84 mg per100g. Kheer provides 390.64 Kcal of energy, 18.10 % of protein, 910.40 mg of calcium and iron 3.24mg/100g. Vadiya gives 385.48 Kcal, 31.00% of protein, 73 mg of calcium and 3.50 mg of iron. Papad provides 415.61 Kcal of energy, 20.58g of protein, 27.50mg of calcium and 2.89mg of iron. The products were popularized among self help groups by giving demonstrations of most acceptable products for their nutritional and health benefits. Microbial estimation of partially defatted peanut flour showed that peanut flour stored in polythene bags is safe after 3 months storage.