Journal of Postharvest Technology 02 (02): 146-151, April’ 2014 www.jpht.info * Email: archkush08@gmai.com ISSN 2348-4330 Nutritional Quality Evaluation of Cowpea Supplemented Food Products Archana Kushwaha 1 *, Astuti Verma 1 and Anil Kumar 2 1 Department of Foods & Nutrition, College of Home Science, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar-263145, Uttarakhand, India 2 Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour- 813210, Bhagalpur, Bihar, India Received : 22 Feb 2014 Revised : 24 Mar 2014 Accepted : 27 Mar 2014 Keywords Cowpea Supplementary foods Nutrient composition Sensory evaluation Abstract An experiment was conducted to develop and evaluate nutritional and sensory characteristics of food products supplemented with cowpea flour. Cowpea flour was incorporated at the levels of 20%, 40%, 60% and 80% to products made from whole wheat flour in khajure, semolina in halwa and refined wheat flour in mathri. Products prepared without cowpea flour served as control. Cowpea flour incorporation levels of 20%, 40% and 20% for khajure, mathri and halwa, respectively, was found to be significantly acceptable. Nutrient composition of acceptable cowpea supplemented food products show an increase in protein, fibre, calcium, iron , magnesium and zinc content ranging from 5.3-13.0%, 0.4 -1.5 %, 16.1-89.2%, 1.3-5.5%, 31.8-98.4% and 0.7-1.8%, respectively as compared to their control counterparts. Present study indicates that cowpea supplemented food products could be considered the best from both nutritional and sensory points of view, especially for young children. INTRODUCTION Nutrition is a basic human need and a prerequisite to a healthy life. Inadequate nutrition may lead to malnutrition, growth retardation, reduced work capacity and poor mental and social development (Manna et al., 2011). Children constitute one of the important segments accounting for 39% of total population of our country, out of which, about 33.6% fall in the preschool age i.e. 0-6 years (Census, 2011). Nutritional status of preschool children is a sensitive indicator of community health and nutrition. Almost half of children under age five years (48 percent) are chronically malnourished i.e. stunted (NIN, 2010). National Nutrition Monitoring bureau (NNMB, 2006) has indicated preschool children consume nearly 60% and 84% of recommended energy and protein, respectively. Dietary inadequacies are reported to be a major determinant of malnutrition. Energy consumption less than 80% of the requirement is reported to be a risk factor for malnutrition of preschool children (Khandait et al., 1998). High malnutrition is associated with consumption of foods of low energy density. It is well known that cereal based foods are low in energy and nutrient density. Pulses will continue to be the major source of dietary protein for vegetarian population. Food products based on cereals lack of an essential amino acid lysine and this can be achieved through legume supplementation. Cowpeas (Vigna unguiculata) are an important grain legume in developing countries like India. High protein (18 to 35%) and carbohydrate (50 to 65%) jpht Research Article