CSIR’s Breakthrough in Baby Food

CSIR’s Breakthrough in Baby Food

{Feature has been uploaded by CSIR (Unit for Science Dissemination), Ministry of Science & Technology, New Delhi}

As a newborn steps into this world with its first cry, the mother’s pivotal role in satisfying her baby’s need for sustenance becomes all too clear. It is breast milk ― a nectar for infants ― that is the best first food as it naturally contains all the components of healthy infant nutrition in correct proportions. It is not only easily digestible but even has properties to promote the development of intestines and brain. A complete food nutritionally, breast milk also equips a baby to fight off infections, which is why there can be no substitute for this unique gift of Nature.

Nonetheless, there are women who are unable to breast feed due to reasons such as lactation failure, insufficient milk secretion, or they suffer from infectious diseases. Such infants have to depend upon ready-foods, available in the market, specially designed for them. Thanks to CSIR scientists at the Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI), Mysore, India today has a flourishing infant food manufacturing industry and does not depend upon the import of foreign infant food brands as it did more than five decades ago.  Prior to 1960, the supply of infant foods meant  a heavy burden on our foreign exchange reserves.

Although hundreds of thousands of parents rely on commercially sold infant foods, most of them are oblivious to the scientific innovation that has gone into designing these baby-friendly products in India. Amul, a baby food based on the CFTRI technology, is a household name in India but alas, not many people are aware of the genesis of this tasty and healthy infant formulation.

Many developed countries produced infant food from cow’s milk, for which standardized production protocols were known. However, as buffalo milk is more readily available in India than cow’s milk, scientists at CFTRI developed a process in late 1950s for the production of infant food from buffalo milk. Later, in 1961, the National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) licensed the process of this indigenous infant food formula to the Kaira District Milk Producers’ Union, at Anand, Gujarat, which produced infant food under the brand name Amul Spray. It was the first time anywhere in the world that baby food was made from buffalo milk on a commercial scale.

Earlier to the development of CFTRI’s formulation, buffalo’s milk, was considered unsuitable for easy digestion by a baby. However, CFTRI technology proved that buffalo’s milk could be turned into a nourishing infant food. This achievement gave a significant boost to the Indian dairy industry, while fulfilling the country’s requirement of having indigenous technology to manufacture infant foods.

The WHO/Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Codex Alimentarius Commission, defines infant food as a product "specially manufactured to satisfy the nutritional requirements of infants during the first months of life up to the introduction of appropriate complementary feeding", and is “a product based on milk of cows or other animals or a mixture thereof and/or other ingredients which have been proven to be suitable for infant feeding.

The nutritive value of infant foods, prepared from buffalo milk containing 10%, 12.5% and 15% protein and fortified with DL-methionine has been studied in experiments with albino rats. The average weekly growth rate of rats receiving milk food containing 10% protein, 20% fat and fortified with DL-methionine was of the same order as those obtained with milk foods containing higher percentage of protein. This formula of infant food, prepared from buffalo milk, was considered suitable for feeding infants in place of full cream milk powder in developing countries, at a reasonable cost. It was also found that milk food containing 10% protein but not fortified with DL-methionine promoted significantly less growth.

Normally, the nutrients contained in baby foods provide 400-600 calories and are mostly fortified with appropriate doses of calcium, iron, and vitamins A, D, C, E, B1, B2, B6 and B12 along with folic acid, niacinamide, calcium pantothenate. In addition to infant foods meant for healthy babies, products have also been designed for those with special nutritional requirements, such as babies born prematurely or suffering from allergies. This includes soya-based, hypoallergenic, or lactose-free infant food formulations.

Lactose is the sugar contained in milk, which is broken down to simpler sugars, glucose and galactose, in the body by an enzyme called lactase, which is produced by the cells lining the small intestine. This enzyme, needed to digest lactose, is normally present in children and even adults who consume milk regularly. However, in some persons there is a deficiency of the enzyme lactase that makes them lactose intolerant. A high incidence of lactose intolerance is also observed in older adults. There is a possible genetic link to lactase deficiency, which is why many children are lactose intolerant. Infants born prematurely are more likely to have lactase deficiency because an infant’s lactase levels do not increase until the third trimester of pregnancy. Lactose intolerance makes an infant or adult quite uncomfortable after consuming milk and milk products. The common symptoms include abdominal pain and bloating, gas, diarrhea, and nausea.

Suiting the needs of infants who cannot digest milk easily due to lactose intolerance, CFTRI has developed the technology for the production of low lactose milk by using permeabilized yeast cells or specific enzymes that hydrolyze lactose to glucose and galactose. ‘Lactulose’ containing infant formula has also been developed, which is specially for babies fed on artificial baby foods, as they lack adequate growth of beneficial microflora, which is found in babies fed on mother’s milk.

Not just that. As the baby grows, the nutritional requirements also increase, which at about three months of age need to be supplemented with semi-solid foods. Novel CFTRI technologies have again proved that healthy weaning foods for infants can be manufactured in India. CFTRI has developed novel weaning foods based on malted cereals/millets and germinated green grams.

CFTRI’s pioneering efforts for developing technologies to produce cheap yet nutritionally rich weaning foods, based on protein isolated from edible oilseed meals is commendable. It was way back in 1965 when Shurpalekar and co-workers at CFTRI published a study on the preparation of a weaning food based on whole soy flour, that contained the spray-dried soy protein. This product was fortified with methionine, vitamins and minerals, contained 26% protein and 18% fat. In 1966 Bal-Amul, the first weaning food developed and manufactured in Asia, was launched in India. This soy-fortified weaning food became very popular at that time. Similarly, in early 1970s Narayanaswamy and co-workers at CFTRI developed a method for making whole soy flour in India and created low-cost protein food that was a blend of wheat and soy flours (70:30).

Another product, Bal-Ahar, was a soy-fortified dietary supplement that contained soy flour, cottonseed or peanut flour and dry milk. Designed to replace soy based imported weaning foods, Bal-Ahar was developed as part of a UNESCO project. Many energy foods that are nutritional supplements, developed by CFTRI, have been distributed to the needy in various social welfare projects including disaster relief activities and many nutrition intervention programs of different States.

In yet another achievement, scientists at CFTRI along with their counterparts at the Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Lagos, Nigeria have developed weaning food formulations that are based on malting of sorghum and cowpea. Malting ― the controlled germinating and drying of a seed ― has been a popular technology for designing supplementary food for babies in the weaning period. For this, the sorghum and cowpea seed are first soaked in water and then allowed to germinate. The so formed sorghum sprouts are dried to about 14% moisture and kilned at 70°C, and later milled and sieved to obtain the malt flour. Cowpea sprouts are split, dehusked, and similarly kilned and milled. To prepare the malted weaning food (MWF), the malted sorghum and cowpea flours are blended in the proportion of 70:30. Scientists have also formulated a precooked weaning food by roller drying a cold water slurry consisting of 70% sorghum flour and 30% cowpea flour.

Formulating weaning foods based on germinated cereals and legumes has a significant nutritional importance as during germination the insoluble protein is transformed into soluble components, and many vitamins and essential amino acids like lysine and tryptophan are known to increase. Besides providing sufficient nutrition to the growing child, such weaning foods are low cost.

Whether it is food for newborns or those with special nutritional needs including infants in the weaning phase who require supplementary food, CFTRI technologies have touched the Indian household in many ways and it shall continue to do so as the baby food industry marches ahead to serve the nation.