Energy and nutrient intake increased by 47-67% when amylase was added to fortified blended foods-a study among 12- to 35-month-old Burkinabe children.

Adding amylase to fortified blended foods can improve energy density, and increase child's energy and nutrient intake. The efficacy of this strategy is unknown for the World Food Programme's Super Cereal Plus (SC+) and Super Cereal (SC) blends. The primary goal of this study was to investigate the increased energy intake from amylase-containing SC+ and SC compared to control porridges in Burkinabe children. Secondly, energy intake from amylase-containing porridges compared to CERELAC® , Vitazom, and eeZeeBAR™ was studied. Thirdly, caregivers' (n = 100) porridge acceptability was investigated. The design was a randomized double-blind controlled cross-over trial studying the effect of amylase addition to SC+ and SC flours on porridge energy and nutrient intake in healthy Burkinabe children aged 12-23 (n = 80) and 24-35 months (n = 40). Amylase added to porridges increased energy density from 0.68 to 1.16 kcal/g for SC+ and from 0.66 to 1.03 kcal/g for SC porridges. Among children aged 12-23 months, mean energy intake from all porridges with amylase (135-164 kcal/meal) was significantly higher compared to control SC+ porridges (84-98 kcal/meal; model-based average). Among children aged 24-35 months, mean energy intakes were also significantly higher from all porridges with amylase added (245-288 kcal/meal) compared to control SC porridges (175-183 kcal/meal). Acceptability of the porridges among caregivers was rated neutral to good, both for amylase-added and non-amylase-containing porridges. These findings suggest that, among 12-35-month-old, adding amylase to fortified blended foods significantly increased energy and consequently nutrient intake per meal by 67% for SC+ and 47% for SC. Moreover, amylase-containing porridges were well accepted by the caregivers.

Increased food intake after the addition of amylase-rich flour to supplementary food for malnourished children in rural communities of Bangladesh.

BACKGROUND: In Bangladesh, as in other developing countries, protein-energy malnutrition is mostprevalent among children during weaning. After weaning, children are often fed cereal-based diluted low-calorie porridge, resulting in growth-faltering. OBJECTIVE: To assess the effect on food intake of adding amylase-rich flour (ARF) from germinated wheat to supplementary food among children in nine rural Community Nutrition Centers under the Bangladesh Integrated Nutrition Project (BINP). METHODS: A total of 166 malnourished children of either sex, aged 6 to 24 months, received one of three diets randomly allocated to the Community Nutrition Centers. The composition of the diets was the same; however, the consistency and calorie density were altered by adding either ARF or water. Thirty-five children received the standard supplementary food of the BINP (S-SF), 65 received supplementaryfood with added ARF (ARF-SF), and 66 received supplementary food with added water (W-SF). The children were studied for six weeks. Results. The mean +/- SD intake of supplementaryfood from a single meal by children completing six weeks on the diets was higher for children receiving ARF-SF (33.91 +/- 8.25 g) than for those receiving S-SF (25.66 +/- 6.73 g) or W-SF (30.26 +/- 8.39g) (p < .05 for both comparisons). The weight of vomited food was significantly higher for children receiving W-SF than for children in the other two groups. Weight gain and increments in length and weight-for-height were higher for children who received ARF-SF than for children in the other two groups, but the differences were not statistically significant. The acceptability ofARF-SF was higher than that of the two other diets. The additional cost of adding 2 g of ARF to the diet was about Taka 0.25 (U.S. dollar 1 = Taka 48). CONCLUSIONS: Addition of ARF to existing standard supplementary food, as used under the BINP program, is a simple and effective means to increase the intake of food by changing its consistency, thus making it easier for malnourished children to ingest.