Compositional Analysis of Complementary Foods Given by Mothers to Children Aged 6-23 Months in Giginyu Nassarawa Local Government Area, Kano

: Under nutrition among young children is high and poor complementary foods have been implicated. The objective of this study was to investigate compositional analysis of complementary foods given by mothers to children aged 6-23 months in Giginyu Nassarawa Local Government Area, Kano State, Nigeria using appropriate standard methods and compare with a commercial complementary food (control). Energy density was designated low if < 0.8 kcal and contribution of meals to daily requirements (RDA) of protein, calcium and zinc for young children determined. The moisture, protein, ash, energy density, calcium, zinc, and phytate contents of the complementary meals (100g wet basis) ranged from 64.32-83.7%, 0.74-6.29%, 0.04-1.41%, 0.37-1.17 kcal/ml, 0.82-27.00 mg/100g, 0.022-0.277mg/100g and 0.05-1.68%, respectively. The soybean based meal, ‘SB’ was significantly higher (p<0.01) than other meals including the control, in protein, ash, energy, calcium, zinc and phytate contents. All other meals met above 50% of the RDA for protein except CMS1 (33%), SMMG (42.1%), PS (19.7%) and MSMP (32.8%). Except SB and CMS2 that contributed above 20-37% of RDA for calcium and zinc, the rest of the complementary meals were very low in calcium and zinc content.The moisture contents of common complementary meals offered to older infants in Giginyu LGA, Kano State are quite high which affected the energy density of the meals. Except for pap/sugar and custard based meals, the meals had appreciable levels of protein contents. However, there was low calcium and zinc (micronutrients) contents of most of the meals with about 400 mls daily consumption.

Complementary food are foods other than breast milk or infant formula (liquid, semi-solid and solids) introduced to an infant from six months to provide required nutrients (WHO/UNICEF, 2021).During the time they are consumed, complementary foods make up a large proportion of the infant's diet and contribute a significant amount of the nutrients that are necessary for growth and development.The foods, therefore, must contain sufficient amounts of the essential nutrients to complement breast-milk.Infants who do not receive quality complementary foods may become undernourished.In Nigeria, under-nutrition remains a major public health problem among under five children.According to the 2018 National Demographic and Health Survey, 22% of children are underweight, 14% are wasted and 37% are stunted (NPC/ICF, 2019).Nigeria Demographic Health Survey reports show that under nutrition rate is highest during complementary feeding stage and linked to poor quality complementary foods (Stewart et al., 2013).According to the survey reports, the northern part of the country is most affected.Complementary meals of infants and young children in low-income countries often contain inadequate levels of the problem micronutrients (calcium, iron and zinc) and the absorption of these micronutrients is often inhibited by the high levels of phytate in the traditional diets (Gibbs, 2010).The most common type of complementary food used among mothers is cereal pap commonly referred to as 'Ogi' among the Yorubas, and 'Akamu' among the Igbos (Ijarotimi et al., 2022).Other types of complementary foods used in Nigeria are custard, golden morn, tea, sweet potatoes, semovita and vegetable soup, beans porridge, noodles (Anaemene and Sogunle, 2020).The cereals are fermented for a period of one to three days in cold water, ground and sieved by adding water to separate the husks.They may be supplemented with vegetables, fruits, fruit juices, and meat products.These foods are often too watery (low energy and nutrient density), bulky, lack variety and of high phytate content (Krebs et al., 2007;Gibson et al., 2010).The presence of anti-nutrients in these plant based complementary foods reduces bioavailability of proteins and minerals unless properly processed or enhancers added (Gibson et al., 2010).For complementary foods to be termed adequate, it has to provide 6-15g protein per 100 g of complementary foods eaten by infants (6-23 months), supply sufficient energy-200 kcal for 6-8 month infants, 300 kcal for 9-11 month infants and 550 kcal for infants in the 12-23 month bracket (PAHO/WHO 2003).During infancy and early childhood (birth to 2 years), adequate amount of vital nutrients has paramount importance for full development of children's potential.This issue of under-nutrition due to poor complementary food has attracted so much attention and thus extensive research has been carried out on improving and developing quality complementary food.However, there is limited information on the actual composition of complementary food as given to children by their mothers.The chemical composition of foods include carbohydrates, fats, proteins, fibre, ash, moisture, vitamins, mineral elements and antinutritional factors among others.Knowledge of the chemical composition of foods is essential in ascertaining the adequacy of foods.There is need to study the energy and nutrient contents of the traditional foods given to children by their mothers to know those that are inadequate and make recommendations.It is easier to modify these foods already known to these mothers than replacing with new ones.Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate compositional analysis of complementary foods given by mothers to children aged 6-23 months in Giginyu Nassarawa Local Government Area, Kano State, Nigeria

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Sample collection: About ten common complementary foods were collected from mothers and analysed for proximate, calcium, iron, zinc and phytate.
Determination of moisture content: Moisture content was determined by oven-dry method as the loss in weight due to evaporation from sample at a temperature of 105°C.The weight loss in each case represented the amount of moisture present in the sample: Determination of crude protein: The crude protein content was determined following the micro Kjeldahl method (AOAC, 2005).Percentage of nitrogen (N) was calculated using the following equation: Where D = Dilution factor, T = titre value = (S-B), W = weight of sample, 0.014 = constant value and Crude protein was obtained by multiplying the corresponding total nitrogen content by a conventional factor of 6.25.
Determination of crude fat: Crude fat was determined by the Soxhlet extraction technique (AOAC, 2016).Fat content of the dried samples was extracted into organic solvent (petroleum ether) at 60 to 80°C and allowed to reflux for six hours.Percentage of fat content was calculated using the following formula: Determination of ash: Ash content was determined by combusting the samples in a muffle furnace at 600°C for 8 hours according to the method of AOAC (2016).
% ℎ  = ℎ  ℎ ℎ    100 1 (4) Determination of crude fiber: The bulk of roughage in food is referred to as the fiber.Milled sample was dried, defatted with ethanol acetone mixture and then the experiment was carried out using the standard method as described in AOAC (2016): Determination of carbohydrate: The carbohydrate content was estimated by the difference method.It was calculated by subtracting the sum of percentage of moisture, fat, protein and ash contents from 100 %.
% ℎ  = 100 − (% + % + protein% + ash%) (6) Determination of total energy: The total energy value of the food formulation was calculated according to the method of Mahgoub, (1999) using the formula as shown in the following equation: Determination of minerals: The mineral contents were determined after the ash content determination.The ash residue of each formulation was digested with perchloric acid and nitric acid (1:4) solution.The samples were left to cool and contents were filtered through Whatman filter paper 42.Each sample solution was made up to a final volume of 25 ml with distilled water.The aliquot was used separately to determine the mineral contents of zinc and calcium by using an Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (Spectra AA 220, USA Varian) (AOAC, 2016).
Phytate: Every sample was soaked for three hours in a 250 ml conical flask containing 2 g and 100 ml of 2% hydrochloric acid.50 millilitres of the filtrate and 107 millilitres of distilled water were added to a conical flask after the mixture was passed through two layers of hard filter paper.Each solution also received the addition of 10 ml of an ammonium thiocyanate (NH4SCM) solution at a concentration of 0.3%.The resultant solution was titrated using an iron (III) chloride standard solution (Joslyn, 1970).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The proximate composition of complementary foods is shown in Table 1.It reveals that the moisture content of the complementary foods varied from 64.32% to 83.70%.However, it shows that milk and sugar mix (MS) had the highest moisture level while soya bean based food (SB) had the least moisture level.the moisture content of a product to be stored, the better the shelf stability of the food product.The high protein of soybased meals also agrees with a study by Okoye et al. (2021), who reported that the sample with 30% soybean and 20% Irish potato flours had the highest level of protein (15.15%).The higher quality of the soya based meals is also attributed to the fact that soyabean seeds are high in proteins and other minerals.Another finding by Akinsola et al. (2017) that crude protein was highest (17.08%) in the sample containing maize, millet and soybeans also supports the finding of the analysis.However, the report of Mahamed et al. (2023), who found that the protein content was highest in samples containing the ratio of 70 g of sorghum to 30 g of peanut flour (17.38 %) contradicts the finding in this study.
Commercial based cereal and custard with added milk and sugar were also common but the commercial cereal based meal was of better nutritional composition because of fortification with minerals.Inclusion of eggs, flesh foods, fruits and vegetables was not observed.Apparently, it was not mentioned if the cereal gruels had other ingredients, although 'Fura nono' is a dairy based meal.The better nutritional values of complementary meals found in this study compared to the ones studied by Anigo and co-workers might be attributed to the long period of study during which a lot of infant and young child feeding targeted programmes have been implemented.The level of awareness on young child feeding practices has tremendously improved over the years but the present study highlights that there are still gaps that need to be filled, particularly in the area of diet diversity, quantities of food groups, energy density and processing of staples.
The major strength of this study is that meals used were collected at the point of feeding which represents exactly what were given to the children.This dealt with the problem of recall bias or over/under reporting associated with dietary recall and other methods.However, one limitation is that information on the recipe or quantities of ingredients used in the preparation of these meals was not obtained.Secondly, only one local government was covered.Therefore, the findings may not represent the situation in the State or country.

Conclusion:
The moisture contents of common complementary meals offered to older infants in Giginyu LGA of Kano State were quite high which affected the energy density of the meals.However, the level of awareness on fortification of cereal-based complementary meals with oily seeds, dairy and even palm oil is notable.Except for pap/sugar and custard based meals, the meals had appreciable levels of protein contents.Of particular concern is the low calcium and zinc (micronutrients) contents of most of the meals with about 400 ml daily consumption.

Table 2
Energy, phytate and mineral content of complementary food as eaten (g/100g wet basis)

Table 4 .
Nutrient Contents and Recommended Dietary Allowances : Recommended Dietary Allowance and adequate intakes from the National Academics.Daily Values from FDA Food Labelling Revision of Nutrition and Supplement Fact labels 2016.