Comparison between low-cost locally produced complementary foods with high-cost imported complementary foods available in Bangladesh by Rat Bioassay

Highly nutritive value contained complementary foods are very important for the children 6-23 months to meet the increasing demands for body requirement as well as fight against high malnutrition. Malnutrition is a persistent health problem among children in Bangladesh, especially under 2 year’s children due to the lack of proper complementary foods both diverse and balanced. Highly nutritive locally produced Complementary foods were prepared by using locally available food resources to ensure the availability of low-cost Complementary food in Bangladesh. The developed foods were evaluated for their nutritional characteristics and microbiological quality. The food (L-1) contained the major nutrients like moisture, ash, fat, protein, fiber, carbohydrate, and energy respectively 2.96%, 3.13%, 9.45%, 15.56%, 0.07%, 59.12%, and 394.1 kcal/ 100 g, and (L-2) 2.08%, 3.09%, 9.3%, 16.09%, 0.08%, 59.74%, and 397.5 kcal/ 100 g, respectively which were comparable to those of the two good quality imported commercial Complementary foods F-1 & F-2. The vitamin A, iron, and calcium contents were significantly different (p<0.05) than the commercial foods. The overall bacteriological status of the prepared and imported commercial Complementary foods was observed to be satisfactory. In rat bioassay, the highest PER and FER were shown in the rats feed on the locally produced instant complementary foods which indicates that it would favorable for the children and good option for the mothers. The costs of the locally prepared Complementary foods are considerably cheaper than the two imported commercial Complementary foods of the same quality and suitable for low-income people of Bangladesh.