CHILD NUTRITION BASED ON ANDEAN CROPS

The Andes mountain range of South America is one of the most important centres for crop domestication, potato, corn, and lesser known grains such as quinua, canihua, kiwicha and tarwi are indigenous of these highlands. These Andean grains have adapted perfectly to the climatic and geographical conditions present, whereas other grains have not been able to survive. In addition to their hardiness, they also have a high nutritional value. Bearing in mind on one hand, the high nutritional value of these indegenous products, and on the other hand the high rate of child malnutrition prevalent in the population, it was considered important to look for new variations in their processing which would facilitate their consumption by the poor working classes, especially the children. Accordingly three different flour mixtures were developed based on these Andean grains, the mixtures were then subjected to bromatological and biological analysis. The three new flour mixtures were: Quinua-Canihua-Broad Bean (Q-C-B), Quinua-Kiwicha-Bean (Q-K-B) and Kiwicha-Rice (K-R). The protein content of these mixtures varied between 11.35-15.46 g/100g, the mixture K-R having the lowest protein level and the Q-C-B having the highest. The Q-K-B mixture had the highest chemical score, PER and NPU value. This PER value of 2.59 was higher than the value of casein which was 2.50. In addition this mixture had a chemical score of 0.94 and a NPU value of 59.38. The Q-C-B mixture had a chemical score of 0.88 and its PER, NPU and Digestibility values were 2.36, 47.24 and 79.2 respectively. The K-R mixture had a chemical score of 0.86, a PER value of 2.48 and a Digestibility value of 80.6. As a result of these tests we can recommend these mixtures for the alimentation of infants. The Q-K-B and Q-C-B mixtures could be prepared only with water due to their high protein content. The K-R mixture should be prepared with milk as it has the lowest protein content. The mixtures meet the international recommendations of the Codex Alimentarius. The products reached a high grade of acceptance between the mothers and children of different social levels, consequently the mixtures will be introduced on the national market through a small manufacturing company specially created for this purpose. The target markets will be the ''comedores populares'' (locally run soup kitchens) and the different aid projects in alimentation thus in this way attempting to improve the diet of the poor working classes specially in the case of the children.