Determination of the Moisture and Mineral Contents in Selected Infant Flour Sold at Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

Child malnutrition is one of the major causes of public health and social welfare problems in developing countries. It is manifested by micronutrient deficiency. Indeed, nutritional deficits are particularly severe in children from 6 to 24 months, when their nutritional needs exceed what they can get from breast milk. To help improve the nutritional quality of locally produced infant flours in Burkina Faso, we assessed the mineral content and determined the water content (moisture content) of 10 infant flours.

The principle of moisture determination is to dry a sample at a temperature between 103 and 105 degrees Celsius until a constant result is obtained. The principle of mineral determination is based on flame atomic absorption. The main flours studied are: corn, soy, millet, sorghum and wheat flour. The highest humidity is 14.09%, while the lowest is 3.23%. The concentration of minerals is unevenly distributed in our samples. Thus the concentration of iron varies between 1.30 mg / 100 g to 7.64 mg / 100 g, zinc between 0.04 to 0.50 mg / 100 g, potassium between 0.03 and 67.52 mg / 100 g, sodium between 14.24 mg / 100 g to 222.69 mg / 100 g, magnesium between 27.66 and 114 mg / 100 g, and the calcium varies between 4.29 and 538.43 mg / 100 g. Results were compared to codex standards and it appears that the concentration of minerals did not meet the standards in some samples. No samples met zinc and potassium standards. In addition, we evaluated the proportion of the main minerals in each sample. Calcium is the most common mineral in most samples against the weakly occurring zinc. The results of this work will enable the necessary organizations to make appropriate arrangements so that the flours that will end up in the shops and foodstuffs meet the international standards for the benefit of the population.