Authors : O.B. Olorunfemi , F.A. Akinyosoye and F.C. Adetuyi
Abstract: Soybeans, ripe and unripe banana were dried, milled and formulated in graded mixtures with maize or sorghum as the food base. The blends were separately fermented at 30�2°C for 72 h. The microbial load and types, pH and proximate analyses of the fermenting mixtures were investigated. The following bacteria and fungi were isolated during fermentation; Bacillus cereus, Clostridium bifermentans, Corynebacterium sp, Leuconostoc mesenteroides, Micrococcus liteus, Staphylococcus aureus and Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger, Mucor mucedo, Rhizopus stolonifer and Saccharomyces sp. The bacterial counts ranged between 3.0 x 106 to 10 x 106 cfu mL-1 for blends with maize base and 2.0 x 106 to 24 x 106 cfu mL-1 for blends with sorghum base for the period of fermentation. Three blend viz; Maize + Unripe banana + Soybean (MUS), Sorghum + Unripe banana + Soybean (SUS) and Sorghum + Ripe Banana (SRB) were found to be adequate in protein (18.20, 21.11 and 19.63%), fat (14.60, 7.76 and 13.21%) and ash (3.87, 2.33 and 1.4%), respectively. These compositions compared favourably with some previously reported studies on weaning foods in Nigeria, such as "soy-ogi" and also with the Protein Advisory Group of United Nations weaning recommendations. MUS, SUS, SRB may therefore be used as potential weaning foods.
O.B. Olorunfemi , F.A. Akinyosoye and F.C. Adetuyi , 2006. Microbial and Nutritional Evaluation of Infant Weaning Food from Mixture of Fermented Food Substrates. Research Journal of Biological Sciences, 1: 20-23.