Stunting, and to a lesser extent wasting and undernutrition, of children under five years
constitutes a serious health problem in Zambia. Although non-nutritional causes such
as infection and poverty importantly exacerbate these conditions, improvements in the
diets of children is vital for better health. The age interval beginning at about six
months is an especially vulnerable time for children, when they are being weaned from
breast milk to conventionally used cultural foods. The current study reports
assessments by mothers of nine experimental weaning mixtures, formulated by
computer to be low cost and nutritionally superior to maize meal alone. An incomplete
block design with randomization was used to compare the nine weaning food blends,
differentially constituted to address specific conditions. One group of 127 mothers (or
guardians) of children 6 to 27 months judged cooked porridges prepared from the
blends. The alternate group of 140 mothers of children from 5 to 30 months evaluated
characteristics of uncooked porridge ingredients. Statistical analyses of hedonic scale
ratings and tabulation of mothers’ voluntary comments were performed. With few
exceptions, blend macronutrient/energy characteristics generally conformed to
proposed standards in Codex Alimentarius and other literature guidelines. Mixture
levels of 20 vitamins and minerals were estimated. A rice-containing formula was most
expensive and a high maize/moderate soy formulation the least costly in price
assessment. Acceptability results showed that in addition to maize meal and nonfat dry
milk, the most acceptable mixtures contained bambara nuts or soybeans as chief
ingredients. Blends with substantial percentages of millet, sorghum, or kapenta were
not ordinarily acceptable. It was observed that all four cooked porridge quality factors
were significantly (p ≤ 0.01) related with each other, and that both ingredient set rating
categories were likewise significantly (p ≤ 0,01) related. It is emphasized that nutrient
contributions of the weaning mixtures are meant for further complementation by
concurrent feeding of breast milk, by appropriate use of micronutrient powders or lipidbased
micronutrient spreads, and by market or home produced foods. Acceptability
results of this study may be influenced by factors such as commodity cost variations,
food donations, mother education, and processing cooperatives.