ScienceAsia 4 (1978): 090-100 |doi: 10.2306/scienceasia1513-1874.1978.04.090

THE ROLE OF PROTEIN QUALITY IN THE DESIGN OF AN INFANT FOOD

PATCHREE CHITTAPORN^a and M.D. EARLE^b

Summary: In the design of an infant food for children aged 6-9 months, 31 nutrients were defined. The costs and composilions of 98 raw materials available commercially in Thailand were fed to a linear programming model and raw materials mixtures selected to give the required levels of the 31 nutrients. The protein quality was defined in terms of amino acid levels, using egg as the reference protein. It was not possible to obtain a feasible solution wilh the minimum amino acid level above 91 % of egg amino acid, which would satisfy the other nutrient requirements. As the mininum amino acid level was increased from 70 to 91 %, so the cost increased. There was also variation in the raw materials chosen, as the protein quality was varied. At 70% amino acid level, the protein came mainly from collards, parboiled rice and squid but these were replaced by duck egg and to a lesser extent by sesame as the minimum amino acid level was increased Protein from duck egg in the mixture increased from 9.42 to 40.12% and sesame from 6.94 to 18.19. There were some collard and sesame at all levels because of their marked contributions to other nutrients, in particular vitamin C and linoleic acid. The results showed the adaptahility of the linear programming model for the study of the effects of compositional change on product design. The method gave a variety of specific mixes from which can be selected the best mix to suit particular circumstances of protein quality, cost, taste preferences, raw material availability, and process applicability.

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Received 24 April 1978