Development and nutritional quality evaluation of weaning foods based on malted, popped and roller dried wheat and chickpea

Optimal conditions for malting wheat and chickpea for preparation of weaning foods were standardized and malted flours from 48 h germinated wheat and 24 h germinated chickpea were blended to prepare malted weaning food. Wheat was dry-heat-parboiled (bulgurized), popped in hot sand and blended with popped chickpea flour to prepare popped weaning food. Mildly toasted and debranned wheat and dehusked chickpea flours were mixed and the blend was roller-dried for preparation of roller dried weaning food. the formulations had 60% wheat, 30% chickpea, 5% skim milk powder and 5% sucrose and contained about 16% protein. the cooked paste viscosity (dietary bulk) of malted food, popped food with malt, and roller dried food with malt was significantly lower than popped and roller dried foods at all comparable slurry concentrations. the energy density of malted and malt-added food slurries at spoon feeding consistency was 4.2 KJg⁻¹. PER (2.91), biological value (88.3) and true digestibility (87.5) values of malted food were higher than that of the other formulations.