Monday, 10 August 2015

Kumara weaning food to improve infant nutrition

Francis Kweku a Massey University PhD student has developed a complementary food for infants in developing nations that could help minimise vitamin A deficiency. 


After working for the World Health Organization, Dr Amagloh found infants in his home nation Ghana were mostly given cereal-based complementary food, prepared from white maize, that is devoid of vitamin A precursors. This spurred his interest in researching strategies to improve infant nutrition for his PhD. 

Using New Zealand kumara (sweet potato), Dr Amagloh developed a food product at Massey’s Food Pilot Plant that could be easily stored and rehydrated with water. It has low phytate and is high in vitamin A precursors and could serve as a good dietary source of vitamin A. The powder could also be manufactured easily in developing nations with locally grown sweet potatoes.

Can rad more about this interesting project here .

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