Evaluation of Physicochemical and Nutritional Properties of a Breakfast Meal for School-Aged Children from Bambara Groundnut and Grain Grits Fortified with Fruits and Eggshell Powder

Breakfast is considered the most important meal of the day. It is commonly derived from grain cereals that are processed through toasting, roasting, extrusion, cooking, baking, or puffing, and is often served with milk and sweeteners. This study aimed to develop enriched breakfast meal for school age children fortified with powdered fruits, Eggshell and to evaluate its Particle size distribution, nutritional, and anti-nutritional factors. The grains were clean, dehull, steam, dry and milled. The fruits were wash clean chopped dry and milled into powder and the eggshell was washed dry toasted milled to powder. The meal was prepared by adding the formulations into hot water stirrer to porridge cold to lower temperature sweeten and serve and Golden morn sample is use as control. Particle size distribution was determine using Ukpabi and Ndimele (1990), phytochemicals, anti-nutritional factors and Amino acid using AOAC (2006), AOAC (2023) respectively. Mineral content was determined following Adedeye and Adewo (1992). Results showed that enriched breakfast meal particle size distribution 1mm (45.56-72.94), 2mm (0.02-0.46), 850µm (5.03-8.68), 710 µm (3.75-8.34), 500 µm (6.54-16.83), 450 µm (2.79-4.45), 300 µm (1.83-4.40), 250 µm (2.31-4.45), 150 µm (2.59-6.34), 62 µm (0.13-3.52) Base (0.01-0.20). Anti-nutritional factors remained within acceptable limits, with Tanin (7.19–0.06 mg/100g) and Oxalate (9.56–0.12 mg/100g) being the most prevalent. The mineral content, including Fe (4.09–1.99 mg/100g), Zn (4.41-2.81mg/100g), Cu (1.23–0.02 mg/100g), and Mn (12.47–6.75 mg/100g). The Amino acid include Proline (8.02-4.27mg/100g), Serine (5.00-4.18 mg/100g), Arginine (7.15-4.31mg/100g), Tyrosine (3.97-3.27 mg/100g), Cystine (1.46-1.16 mg/100g), Alanine (7.08-5.17 mg/100g), Glutamic acid (18.65-16.36 mg/100g), Glycine (4.76-3.42) and Aspartic acid (9.59-6.14 mg/100g). The study concludes that Eggshell and fruit-fortified breakfast meal for school age children can serve as a nutrient-rich and potentially enhancing mineral intake and addressing nutritional deficiencies.