PHYSICAL AND NUTRITIONAL QUALITIES OF EXTRUDED WEANING FOODS CONTAINING SORGHUM, PEARL-MILLET, OR FINGER MILLET BLENDED WITH MUNG BEANS ANDNONFAT DRIED MILK

Sorghum, pearl millet, and finger millet flours (60% of each) were ble nded with toasted mung bean flour (30%) and nonfat dry milk (10%) and extruded (Brabender single screw) to make precooked, ready-to-eat, wea ning foods. The extruded foods had high cold paste viscosity, but thei r cooked paste viscosity was lower than that of the respective blends. Chemical scores of the extruded foods were 78 for sorghum, 80 for pea rl millet, and 96 for finger millet. Protein digstibility corrected am ino acid scores (PD-CAS) were similar for pearl millet (68%) and finge r millet (69%); PD-CAS for sorghum was 57%. Total dietary fiber conten t of the foods ranged from 7.6 to 10.1%, with the soluble dietary fibe r content of the foods being about 10% higher than that of the corresp onding blends. Extrusion enhanced the in vitro protein digestibility o f foods, but no marked difference occurred in the in vitro carbohydrat e digestibility among the unprocessed blends and the extruded foods. T he net protein ratio, protein efficiency ratio, and biological values were higher for the finger millet food than for the pearl millet food, probably because of the higher lysine content of the finger millet pr otein.