Plant-Based Supplementary Foods from Indigenous Crops: Acceptability and Nutritional Potential for Moderate Acute Malnourished Children

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the acceptability of plant-based indigenous energy-dense protein-rich (EDPR) ready-to-eat supplementary foods developed from germinated cereals, millets, legumes, and peanuts for children with moderate acute malnutrition (MAM). Three supplementary foods, namely paste (P0: control; P6: developed), biscuit (B0: control; B4: developed), and nutribar (N0: control; N5: developed), were compared with a commercially available peanut-based Ready-to-Use Supplementary Food (RUSF) paste (C0) among children aged 6–59 months in the urban area of Faridabad, India. The primary outcome, measured as the amount of food consumed, was highest for N5 (60.97±18.90 g), followed by B4 (60.79±21.30 g), C0 (35.46±17.21 g), P6 (36.27±16.12 g), and P0 (23.03±11.40 g). Protein intake was significantly higher for B4 (8.18±2.87 g), N0 (8.89±3.62 g), and N5 (8.38±2.59 g) than for C0 (5.00±2.53 g), P0 (3.47±1.72 g), P6 (4.92±2.19 g), and B0 (4.10±1.53 g). Likewise, energy intake was significantly greater for B0 (304.41±111.50 kcal), B4 (317.10±109.03 kcal), N0 (301.20±122.69 kcal), and N5 (317.63±98.45 kcal) than for C0 (188.29±91.76 kcal), P0 (133.56±66.41 kcal), and P6 (190.27±92.37 kcal). Among the developed formulations, the biscuit (B4) and nutribar (N5), prepared using germinated soybean, germinated pearl millet, germinated wheat, and peanut, demonstrated superior acceptability, nutrient intake, and sensory attributes. These findings highlight the potential of indigenous plant-derived ingredients to develop sustainable, culturally acceptable supplementary foods that can support dietary management of MAM while promoting the utilisation of underexploited cereal, millet, and legume resources.