Submerged fermentation of lentil protein isolate and its impact on protein functionality, nutrition, and volatile profiles.

Fermentation of pulses as a clean processing technique has been reported to have a favorable impact on the functional and nutritional quality of the starting materials. Compared to commonly fermented pulses such as peas and chickpeas, limited information is available on the effect of fermentation on lentils, especially when using a high protein isolate (>80% protein) as compared to seeds or flours. Therefore, in the present work, lentil protein isolate was used as a feedstock for submerged fermentation with Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus oryzae, or Lactobacillus plantarum. After 48 h, the samples showed increased protein content with enhanced solubility and oil-holding capacity. Controlled fermentation, as opposed to spontaneous fermentation, maintained the high foaming capacity; however, all fermented samples had lower foam and emulsion stabilizing properties and reduced water-holding capacity compared to the control. The fermented proteins were also less digestible, possibly due to an increase in phenolics and saponins. New volatile compounds were identified in fermented samples that show promise for improved sensory attributes. Significant differences were observed in specific quality attributes depending on the microbial strain used. Further research is required to better understand the fermentative metabolism of microbial communities when provided high-protein lentil ingredients as growth substrates. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: Fermented lentil protein isolate has promising flavor profiles that may improve its sensory properties for food application.

Effects of extrusion screw speed, feed moisture content, and barrel temperature on the physical, techno-functional, and microstructural quality of texturized lentil protein.

Utilizing lentil protein as a novel ingredient for producing texturized vegetable proteins (TVPs) can provide new opportunities for the production of next-generation hybrid meat products. TVPs from lentil protein isolate were manufactured using low-moisture extrusion cooking at different combinations of screw speed (SS), feed moisture content (MC), and barrel temperature (BT) profile. In total, seven different combinations of processing treatments were tested, and the resulting TVPs were characterized for their physical (rehydration ratio, texture profile analysis, color, and bulk density), techno-functional (oil and water holding capacities), and microstructural properties. The processing conditions of higher SS and lower MC resulted in increased values of several textural profile attributes (springiness, cohesiveness, and resilience), increased water holding capacity (WHC), and decreased bulk density. Compared to raw lentil protein, TVPs showed enhanced oil holding capacity, though WHC either decreased or remained constant. The extrusion response parameters (die pressure, torque, and specific mechanical energy) showed positive correlations with several physical properties (texture, WHC, and total color change), revealing their potential for serving as important TVP quality indicators. TVPs produced at SS, MC, and BT of 450 rpm, 30%, and 140°C, respectively, showed relatively better overall physical and techno-functional quality and can be used as meat extenders in hybrid meat patties. Overall, this research evidenced the viability of lentil protein as a potential ingredient for producing low-moisture TVPs.

CRISPR/Cas9-mediated lipoxygenase gene-editing in yellow pea leads to major changes in fatty acid and flavor profiles.

Introduction: Although pulses are nutritious foods containing high amounts of protein, fiber and phytochemicals, their consumption and use in the food industry have been limited due to the formation of unappealing flavors/aromas described as beany, green, and grassy. Lipoxygenase (LOX) enzymes are prevalent among pulse seeds, and their activity can lead to the formation of specific volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from certain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). As a widespread issue in legumes, including soybean, these VOCs have been linked to certain unappealing taste perception of foods containing processed pulse seeds. Methods: To address this problem in pea and as proof of principle to promote the wider use of pulses, a Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) construct was designed to create null alleles (knockouts) of PsLOX2 which had been implicated in the generation of VOCs in peas. Results and discussion: Successful CRISPR/Cas9-mediated LOX gene editing of stable transgenic pea lines (TGP) was confirmed by DNA sequencing of the wild type (WT) and TGP pslox2 mutant lines. These lines were also assessed for LOX activity, PUFA levels, and VOCs. Compared to WT peas, the TGP lines showed a significant reduction (p < 0.05) in LOX activity and in the concentration of key VOCs, including hexanal, 2-hexenal, heptanal, (E)-2-heptenal, (E,E)-2,4-heptadienal, 1-octen-3-ol, octanal, (E)-2-octenal (E,E)-2,4-nonadienal and furan-2-pentyl. The content of two essential PUFAs, linoleic and α-linolenic acids, the known substrates of LOX in plants, was higher in TGP flours, indicating the efficacy of the CRISPR-mediated gene editing in minimizing their oxidation and the further modification of PUFAs and their products. The collection of VOCs from the headspace of ground pea seeds, using a portable eNose also distinguished the TGP and WT lines. Multiple regression analysis showed that LOX activity correlated with the two VOCs, heptanal and (E,E)-2,4-heptadienal in pea flours. Partial Least Squares Regression (PLS-R) plot for selected PUFAs, VOCs, and sensor responses in WT and TGP lines showed distinct clusters for WT and TGP lines. Together this data demonstrates the utility of CRISPR mediated mutagenesis of PsLOX2 to quickly improve aroma and fatty acid (FA) profiles of pea seeds of an elite Canadian variety.

Valorization of wastes and by-products of nuts, seeds, cereals and legumes processing.

Wastes and by-products of nuts, seeds, cereals and legumes carry a unique potential for valorization into value-added ingredients due to their protein, dietary fiber, antioxidant, vitamin and mineral contents. The most crucial factor in the recovery of value-added ingredients and bioactives from the wastes and by-products is the utilization of the most efficient extraction technique. This work is an overview of the classification of wastes and by-products of nuts, seeds, cereals and legumes processing, the methods used in the extraction of valuable compounds such as proteins, dietary fibers, phenolics, flavonoids and other bioactives. This chapter provides insights on the promising applications of extracted ingredients in various end products. A special emphasis is given to the challenges and improvement methods for extraction of value-added compounds from wastes and by-products of nuts, seeds, cereals and legumes processing.

What's Up Wednesday: Optimizing Educational Rounding to Improve Outcomes.

The role of the nursing professional development practitioner is to identify gaps in practice and determine opportunities for learning. Scanning the environment is one of the crucial inputs of the nursing professional development practice model. However, owing to the complexities of today's patient care environment, engaging staff at the point of care presents formidable challenges. This article details how professional development specialists at a community hospital developed and implemented a program to both engage bedside staff and improve outcomes.

Gallium arsenide optical phased array photonic integrated circuit.

A 16-channel optical phased array is fabricated on a gallium arsenide photonic integrated circuit platform with a low-complexity process. Tested with a 1064 nm external laser, the array demonstrates 0.92° beamwidth, 15.3° grating-lobe-free steering range, and 12 dB sidelobe level. Based on a reverse biased p-i-n structure, component phase modulators are 3 mm long with DC power consumption of less than 5 µW and greater than 770 MHz electro-optical bandwidth. Separately fabricated 4-mm-long phase modulators based on the same structure demonstrate single-sided Vπ·L modulation efficiency ranging from 0.5 V·cm to 1.22 V·cm when tested at wavelengths from 980 nm to 1360 nm.

Contribution of home garden vegetables on reducing stunting among 6- to 23-month-old children in South Tigray, northern Ethiopia.

The study was conducted to analyze the contribution of home garden vegetables in reducing stunting among 6- to 23-month-old children from South Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. The quasi-experimental study design was used. Multistage sampling technique was used to select the districts and study communities. A total of 94 purposively selected vegetable producer (intervention) households and 260 randomly selected non-producer (control) households were included in the study (1:3 ratio). The recumbent length of children was measured using horizontal wooden board to the nearest 0.1 cm. The length-for-age Z-scores were computed using WHO-Anthro 2006 software. Propensity score-matching and difference-in-difference (DID) estimates were used to analyze data using STATA software version 12. Prevalence of child stunting was 19.8 (12.7-29.4) and 21.1 (16.4-26.7)% (baseline) and 43.5 (33.5-54.1) and 46.5 (45.7-47.2)% (end line) among intervention and control groups, respectively. Child stunting was higher for boys and older children from both intervention and control households. DID estimation revealed that there was no significant difference in child stunting between intervention and control households (DID = 1.7, p = .604). However, there was an intervention effect of -0.5, 2.5, and 1.7% in the prevalence of child stunting among females, males, and both sexes, respectively. Vegetable production as an intervention strategy reduced the prevalence of stunting in children aged 6-23 months. However, vegetable production needs to be well integrated with other nutrition-sensitive interventions to realize the objective of reducing child stunting.

Bioengineered Enzymes and Precision Fermentation in the Food Industry.

Enzymes have been used in the food processing industry for many years. However, the use of native enzymes is not conducive to high activity, efficiency, range of substrates, and adaptability to harsh food processing conditions. The advent of enzyme engineering approaches such as rational design, directed evolution, and semi-rational design provided much-needed impetus for tailor-made enzymes with improved or novel catalytic properties. Production of designer enzymes became further refined with the emergence of synthetic biology and gene editing techniques and a plethora of other tools such as artificial intelligence, and computational and bioinformatics analyses which have paved the way for what is referred to as precision fermentation for the production of these designer enzymes more efficiently. With all the technologies available, the bottleneck is now in the scale-up production of these enzymes. There is generally a lack of accessibility thereof of large-scale capabilities and know-how. This review is aimed at highlighting these various enzyme-engineering strategies and the associated scale-up challenges, including safety concerns surrounding genetically modified microorganisms and the use of cell-free systems to circumvent this issue. The use of solid-state fermentation (SSF) is also addressed as a potentially low-cost production system, amenable to customization and employing inexpensive feedstocks as substrate.

Quantitative trait loci associated with amino acid concentration and in vitro protein digestibility in pea (Pisum sativum L.).

With the expanding interest in plant-based proteins in the food industry, increasing emphasis is being placed on breeding for protein concentration and quality. Two protein quality traits i.e., amino acid profile and protein digestibility, were assessed in replicated, multi-location field trials from 2019 to 2021 in pea recombinant inbred line population PR-25. This RIL population was targeted specifically for the research of protein related traits and its parents, CDC Amarillo and CDC Limerick, had distinct variations in the concentration of several amino acids. Amino acid profile was determined using near infrared reflectance analysis, and protein digestibility was through an in vitro method. Several essential amino acids were selected for QTL analysis, including lysine, one of the most abundant essential amino acids in pea, and methionine, cysteine, and tryptophan, the limiting amino acids in pea. Based on phenotypic data of amino acid profiles and in vitro protein digestibility of PR-25 harvested in seven location-years, three QTLs were associated with methionine + cysteine concentration, among which, one was located on chromosome 2 (R2 = 17%, indicates this QTL explained 17% phenotypic variation of methionine + cysteine concentration within PR-25), and two were located on chromosome 5 (R2 = 11% and 16%). Four QTLs were associated with tryptophan concentration and are located on chromosome 1 (R2 = 9%), chromosome 3 (R2 = 9%), and chromosome 5 (R2 = 8% and 13%). Three QTLs were associated with lysine concentration, among which, one was located on chromosome 3 (R2 = 10%), the other two were located on chromosome 4 (R2 = 15% and 21%). Two QTLs were associated with in vitro protein digestibility, one each located on chromosomes 1 (R2 = 11%) and 2 (R2 = 10%). QTLs associated with in vitro protein digestibility, and methionine + cysteine concentration on chromosome 2 were identified to be co-localized with known QTL for total seed protein concentration in PR-25. QTLs associated with tryptophan and methionine + cysteine concentration co-localized on chromosome 5. The identification of QTLs associated with pea seed quality is an important step towards marker-assisted selection of breeding lines with improved nutritional quality, which will further boost the competitiveness of pea in plant-based protein markets.

Snapshot of proteomic changes in Aspergillus oryzae during various stages of fermentative processing of pea protein isolate.

Pea (Pisum sativum) is one of the most abundant and sustainable alternate source of protein. Although pea proteins have good quantities of most of the essential amino acids, they have a limited supply of tryptophan, methionine and cysteine. Moreover, pea proteins have poor techno-functional properties compared to proteins from animal sources, limiting their use in certain food applications. Bioprocessing techniques like solid-state fermentation (SSF) and enzymatic processing have been explored to improve the nutrient profile and functionality of pea proteins. However, there is a lack of information about proteomic changes in the food matrix during fermentation of the pea substrate. In this research, samples during SSF of pea protein isolate with Aspergillus oryzae were used for shotgun mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis to identify the underlying functional pathways which play direct or indirect roles in enabling the colonization of the substrate leading to potential improvement of functional and nutritional value of pea protein. Results revealed the identity of A. oryzae proteins involved in different metabolic pathways that differed during various stages of SSF. Among them, methionine synthase was identified as an abundant protein, which catalyzes methionine biosynthesis. This might suggest how fermentation processes could be used to improve the presence of sulfur containing amino acids to rebalance the essential amino acid profile and improve the nutritional quality of pea proteins.

Plant leaf proteins for food applications: Opportunities and challenges.

Plant-based proteins are gaining a lot of attention for their health benefits and are considered as an alternative to animal proteins for developing sustainable food systems. Against the backdrop, ensuring a healthy diet supplemented with good quality protein will be a massive responsibility of governments across the globe. Increasing the yield of food crops has its limitations, including low acceptance of genetically modified crops, land availability for cultivation, and the need for large quantities of agrochemicals. It necessitates the sensible use of existing resources and farm output to derive the proteins. On average, the protein content of plant leaves is similar to that of milk, which can be efficiently tapped for food applications across the globe. There has been limited research on utilizing plant leaf proteins for food product development over the years, which has not been fruitful. However, the current global food production scenario has pushed some leading economies to reconsider the scope of plant leaf proteins with dedicated efforts. It is evident from installing pilot-scale demonstration plants for protein extraction from agro-food residues to cater to the protein demand with product formulation. The present study thoroughly reviews the opportunities and challenges linked to the production of plant leaf proteins, including its nutritional aspects, extraction and purification strategies, anti-nutritional factors, functional and sensory properties in food product development, and finally, its impact on the environment. Practical Application: Plant leaf proteins are one of the sustainable and alternative source of proteins. It can be produced in most of the agroclimatic conditions without requiring much agricultural inputs. It's functional properties are unique and finds application in novel food product formulations.

Educational intervention and livestock ownership successfully improved the intake of animal source foods in 6-23 months old children in rural communities of Northern Ethiopia: Quasi-experimental study.

BACKGROUND: Animal source foods (ASFs) are rich in high-quality proteins, including essential amino acids and highly bioavailable micronutrients vital for child growth and cognitive development. But, the daily consumption of ASFs among 6-23 months old children is very low in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to assess the effectiveness of nutrition education intervention to improve the consumption of ASFs among 6-23 months old children from rural communities with strict religious fasting traditions of avoiding intake of ASFs in Northern Ethiopia. METHODS: A quasi-experimental study was conducted in two food insecure districts namely Samre Seharti (intervention) and Tanqua Abergele (comparison). The mother-child pairs in the intervention group (n = 140) received nutrition education based on the barriers and available resources for optimal consumption of ASFs among children and followed up for nine months. The mother-child pairs in the comparison group (n = 153) received routine nutrition education. The data were collected using a pre-tested structured questionnaire. The baseline and endline data assessment included interviews on socio-demographic and socio-economic status, dietary intake, and child feeding practices. The effectiveness of the intervention was measured using the difference-in-difference (DID) analysis model. RESULTS: At endline, the consumption of ASFs among children was 19.5 percentage points higher in the intervention group compared with the comparison group (p = 0.008). In addition, there was a significant increase in egg consumption among children in the intervention group (DID of 16.9, p = 0.012) from the comparison group. No child was consuming meat at baseline in both the intervention and comparison arms and it was very low at endline (5.2% vs. 7.9%). Overall, the proportion of children that consumed eggs in the intervention group was higher than in the comparison group in households that owned sheep and goats (4.8% vs. 21.4%, p = 0.050) and chicken (6.3% vs. 43.8%, p = 0.002) after education interventions. However, no statistically significant difference was observed between cow ownership and milk consumption among children (p>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Age-appropriate educational interventions for mothers and owning small livestock in the household can improve the consumption of ASFs and eventually the minimum diet diversity of children in communities with strict religious traditions of avoiding ASFs during the fasting seasons.

Conversion of Pulse Protein Foam-Templated Oleogels into Oleofoams for Improved Baking Application.

The food industry has long been searching for an efficient replacement for saturated-fatty-acid-rich fats for baking applications. Although oleogels have been considered a potential alternative for saturated and trans fats, their success in food application has been poor. The present study explored the use of oleofoams obtained by whipping the pulse protein foam-templated oleogels for cake baking. Oleogels were prepared at room temperature by adding canola oil containing high-melting monoglyceride (MAG) or candelilla wax (CW) to the freeze-dried pea or faba bean protein-stabilized foams. Oleogels were then whipped to create the oleofoams; however, only the oleogels containing MAG could form oleofoams. CW-oleogel could not form any oleofoam. The most stable oleofoams with the highest overrun, stability, and storage modulus were obtained from 3% MAG+pulse protein foam-templated oleogels. The MAG plus protein foam-templated oleogels showed smaller and more packed air bubbles than MAG-only oleofoam, which was ascribed to the protein's ability to stabilize air bubbles and provide a network in the continuous oil phase to restrict air bubble movement. A novel batter preparation method for oleofoam was developed to increase air bubble incorporation. The X-ray microtomography images of the cakes showed a non-homogeneous distribution of larger air bubbles in the oleofoam cake compared to the shortening cake although their total porosity was not much different. The oleofoam cakes made with the new method yielded similar hardness and chewiness compared to the shortening cakes. By improving rheology and increasing air incorporation in the batter, high-quality cakes can be obtained with MAG-containing oleofoams made from pulse protein foam-templated oleogels.

Improvement of the nutritional quality of lentil flours by infrared heating of seeds varying in size.

The present study aimed to tackle research gaps regarding how infrared heating affected macro- and micronutrients of lentil flours from seeds varying in size. Infrared treatments reduced resistant starch contents of lentil flours from 26.1-33.6% to 6.0-17.8%, increased protein digestibility from 73.6-75.0% to 78.2-82.2%, and enhanced soluble dietary fiber contents from 6.1-7.8% to 7.4-10.3%. Infrared treatments did not alter the primary limiting amino acid of Greenstar and Imvincible lentil flours (tryptophan) but changed that of Maxim to methionine + cysteine at 150 °C heating. Regarding micronutrients, the thermal modifications decreased the levels of heat-labile B vitamins, including B1 (thiamine), B3 (niacin), and B9 (mainly 5-methylterahydrofolate), consistent with reducing α-amylase activity to an undetectable level in all the three lentil flours. The novel findings from this research will be meaningful for the agri-food industry to utilize infrared processing as an effective and clean-label approach to improving the nutritional profiles of lentil and other flours.

Developing Value-Added Protein Ingredients from Wastes and Byproducts of Pulses: Challenges and Opportunities.

Wastes and byproducts of pulse processing carry a potential for utilization as raw materials for extraction of protein ingredients. This work is an overview of the extraction and fractionation techniques used for obtaining protein ingredients from wastes and byproducts of pulse processing, and it presents several characteristics of proteins extracted in terms of composition, nutritional properties, and functional properties. Several extraction methods have been applied to obtain protein ingredients from pulse processing wastes and byproducts. Each extraction technique is indicated to have significant effects on protein composition and functionality which could also affect the performance of proteins in different food applications. Versatile end product applications of protein ingredients obtained from pulse processing wastes and byproducts are yet to be discovered. Research is lacking on the limitations and improvement methods for using wastes and byproducts of pulses for protein extraction. This review provides insights into the possible applications of innovative extraction technologies for obtaining protein ingredients from wastes and byproducts of pulses. Further research has to focus on various modification techniques that can be applied to improve the functional, nutritional, and sensory properties of proteins extracted from pulse processing wastes and byproducts.

Triboelectrostatic charging behavior of pulse particles in a vortex flow tribocharger.

Triboelectrostatic separation (TES) has shown its great potential in dry fractionation of food ingredients. The principle of the TES technique is straightforward, i.e., charging particles through interactions of particle-particle and/or particle-wall of the contact material, followed by the effect of an electric field. However, optimization of TES efficiency is complex due to obscure understandings, unknowns, and inconsistencies in the charging mechanism between the tribocharger and the agro-food materials. To broaden the design and applications of the TES technique and shed some light on the charging mechanism, experiments were conducted in a vortex flow tribocharger made of three different materials (Copper, Stainless Steel, and PTFE) to investigate the chargeability of five type of selected pulses particles. A Faraday cup measurement system was applied to measure the electric charge of the particles collected at the core and wall regions of the tribocharger. The charges of the pulse particles induced by the vibratory feeder were also measured to verify the chargeability of the particles. Ideal charging material was suggested by comparing the specific charge of particles using the three vessels. A simple "wave propagation" mode based on the vortex flow dynamics has been proposed with an attempt to explore the role of particle-particle and particle-wall interactions on the triboelectrostatic charging.

Microencapsulation of Flaxseed Oil by Lentil Protein Isolate-κ-Carrageenan and -ι-Carrageenan Based Wall Materials through Spray and Freeze Drying.

Lentil protein isolate (LPI)-κ-carrageenan (κ-C) and -ι-carrageenan (ι-C) based microcapsules were prepared through spray-drying and freeze-drying to encapsulate flaxseed oil in order to reach final oil levels of 20% and 30%. Characteristics of the corresponding emulsions and their dried microcapsules were determined. For emulsion properties, all LPI-κ-C and LPI-ι-C emulsions remained 100% stable after 48 h, while the LPI emulsions destabilized quickly (p < 0.05) after homogenization mainly due to low emulsion viscosity. For spray-dried microcapsules, the highest yield was attributed to LPI-ι-C with 20% oil, followed by LPI-κ-C 20% and LPI-ι-C 30% (p < 0.05). Flaxseed oil was oxidized more significantly among the spray-dried capsules compared to untreated oil (p < 0.05) due to the effect of heat. Flaxseed oil was more stable in all the freeze-dried capsules and showed significantly lower oil oxidation than the untreated oil after 8 weeks of storage (p < 0.05). As for in vitro oil release profile, a higher amount of oil was released for LPI-κ-C powders under simulated gastric fluid (SGF), while more oil was released for LPI-ι-C powders under simulated gastric fluid and simulated intestinal fluid (SGF + SIF) regardless of drying method and oil content. This study enhanced the emulsion stability by applying carrageenan to LPI and showed the potential to make plant-based microcapsules to deliver omega-3 oils.

Comparison of Protein Content, Availability, and Different Properties of Plant Protein Sources with Their Application in Packaging.

Plant-based proteins are considered to be one of the most promising biodegradable polymers for green packaging materials. Despite this, the practical application of the proteins in the packaging industry on a large scale has yet to be achieved. In the following review, most of the data about plant protein-based packaging materials are presented in two parts. Firstly, the crude protein content of oilseed cakes and meals, cereals, legumes, vegetable waste, fruit waste, and cover crops are indexed, along with the top global producers. In the second part, we present the different production techniques (casting, extrusion, and molding), as well as compositional parameters for the production of bioplastics from the best protein sources including sesame, mung, lentil, pea, soy, peanut, rapeseed, wheat, corn, amaranth, sunflower, rice, sorghum, and cottonseed. The inclusion of these protein sources in packaging applications is also evaluated based on their various properties such as barrier, thermal, and mechanical properties, solubility, surface hydrophobicity, water uptake capacity, and advantages. Having this information could assist the readers in exercising judgement regarding the right source when approving the applications of these proteins as biodegradable packaging material.

The influence of fasting on energy and nutrient intake and their corresponding food sources among 6-23 months old children in rural communities with high burden of stunting from Northern Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND: Limited studies in Ethiopia showed that infants and young children are at high risk of inadequate intake of energy and nutrients. However, inclusive assessment of both nutrient intakes and their food sources are lacking. We aimed at assessing energy and nutrient intakes and their food sources during religious fasting and non-fasting periods among 6-23 months old children in Northern Ethiopia. METHODS: Data for this longitudinal study were collected following repeated multiple-pass 24-h dietary recall technique through face-to-face interviews with primary caregivers. Using a two-stage systematic random sampling method, a total of 570 and 551 children participated respectively in the lent fasting and non-fasting periods. Energy and nutrient intakes were estimated and compared with WHO daily requirements. All foods that a child consumed on the day preceding the date of data collection were recorded and processed with database software. Chi-square and t- tests were used to analyze the data. Non-normally distributed data were analyzed using Wilcoxon signed-rank test and statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of child stunting was 41.4%. Almost all of children (99.6%) consumed grains, roots, and tubers. The inadequacy prevalence of energy, protein and eight selected micronutrients (calcium, iron, zinc, vitamin A, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin C) intake were 96.2, 44.9, and 95.5%, respectively. Calcium and zinc were the highest (100%) deficits observed across all age groups. Although consumption of animal source foods (ASFs) was very low (dairy 10.1%, meat 2.3% and eggs 23.6%), there was significantly higher consumption of meat and eggs during the non-fasting compared to fasting period (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Inadequate intake of energy and nutrients was common among 6-23 months old children. Cereals were found to be the main sources of many of the nutrients. The consumption of ASFs among 6-23-month-old children was low which was also affected by the religious fasting period. Hence, strengthening social and behavior change communication, supporting rural households to raise poultry and small ruminants is recommended.