Formulation and In-Vivo Nutritional, Biochemical, and Microbial Quality Assessments of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Foods for Malnutrition

In Nigeria, factors such as high cost of living, regional insecurity, inflation, poor feeding practices, and high poverty rates have exacerbated the prevalence of Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM). This study aimed to formulate and evaluate the in-vivo nutritional, biochemical, microbial, and sensory qualities of locally produced therapeutic foods for the management of SAM. The food formulations were coded as PMF – 100% Pearl Millet Flour, PBM1 – 60% Pearl Millet + 20% Bambara Groundnut + 5% Moringa Leaves + 5% Vegetable Oil + 10% Sucrose, PBM2 – 50% Pearl Millet + 30% Bambara Groundnut + 5% Moringa Leaves + 5% Vegetable Oil + 10% Sucrose, PBM3 – 40% Pearl Millet + 40% Bambara Groundnut + 5% Moringa Leaves + 5% Vegetable Oil + 10% Sucrose, CTL – Control (UNICEF standard RUTF product). Nutritional assessments were conducted using rat bioassays, haematological analysis, microbial quality testing, and sensory evaluation for acceptability. Data were subjected to one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) at a significance level of p< 0.05. Results indicated that rats fed the formulated pearl millet-based RUTFs demonstrated improved growth performance. The Biological Value (BV) of the samples ranged from 70.36% in PBM1 to 78.50% in PBM3. Net Protein Utilization (NPU) ranged from 58.97% in PBM1 to 70.86% in PBM3, while the Protein Efficiency Ratio (PER) ranged from 2.01 (PBM1) to 2.42 (PBM3). Sensory evaluation revealed that PBM samples exhibited significantly better appearance, texture, taste, and aroma than PMF (100% Pearl Millet), with statistical significance (p < 0.05). The study concludes that pearl millet-based ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTFs) formulated with indigenous ingredients demonstrate promising nutritional, biochemical, and sensory qualities and may serve as effective functional foods in the management of children with Severe Acute Malnutrition.