Development and Evaluation of Pumpkin Flour Incorporated Weaning Mix

The improvement of recent weaning meals combination that may be organized in the domestic calls for an knowledge of a whole lot of social, cultural, financial and nutritional factors that may affect the acceptability and the nutritional quality of the diet. The study was done with the objectives to develop the value added weaning meals product using flours of germinated cereal-pulse and fortified with different concentration of pumpkin flour. Fresh pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima) were dehydrated and powdered, brown rice, wheat (Triticium aestium), bajra (Pennisetum americanum), whole green gram (Phaseolus aureus roxb) were germinated, dried, pulverised and combined with roasted groundnut (Arachis hypogea) and palm jaggery. Weaning mix (porridge) and pumpkin ladoo were prepared with three proportions (10, 20 and 30 g) of pumpkin flour. The weaning meals blend was subjected to sensory, physical and nutritional evaluation. It was observed that cooking time and gelatinization temperature multiplied with increasing incorporation of pumpkin flour. The sensory evaluation found out that weaning meals blend with 10 g pumpkin flour fortification had good sensory qualities. Hence weaning blend (porridge and laddu) contains all essential nutrients, essential for physical growth, prevent diseases, malnutrition and complete meals for infants and adults.