Nutritional and sensory quality of complementary foods developed from Ethiopian staple grains and insect bee larvae (Apis mellifera)

Complementary feeding could be a method of providing different foods when breast milk alone is not any longer enough to satisfy the nutritional demand of the infant, and so food and liquids other than breast milk are needed. The objective of this study was to assess the nutritional and sensory quality of complementary foods formulated from a mixture of staple grains with Apis mellifera. Individual ingredients of protein (g/100g) ranged from 9.79-50.5 g/100g, highest in soybean and low in teff. Also, the fat contents of ingredients were recorded as 2.65-24.98 g/100g, highest in bee larvae. The formulated foods were CF001 (Maize, Teff, Soybean; 57:29:14, respectively) and CF002 (Maize, Teff, Bee larvae; 58:29:13, respectively) using Nutrisurvey software (version, 2007). Standard methods were used to analyze the nutritional, microbiological, and sensory components of the flour mixture developed. The developed and control foods had significantly different proximate compositions. Insect bee larvae base CF002 recorded the highest fat, energy, Vitamin A, Niacin, and folate contents which were 14.3 g/100g, 427.18 Kcal/100g, 706 µg/100g, 8.2 mg/100g, and 86.7 mg/100g. Minerals (mg/100g) Fe (40.94) and Ca (68.20) were highest in CF002. The sensory evaluation showed that all the foods were above the minimum threshold. Hence, A. mellifera can be used as a complementary food ingredient in conventional cereal foods. Key words: Apis mellifera, complementary foods, infants, nutrients