Nutritional evaluation of home‐prepared soy‐corn milk – a protein beverage

Abstract

Freshly‐blanched soybean seeds, mixed with grains of freshly‐harvested green field maize were combined, in ratios of 5:1 (A), 4:1 (B), 3:1 (C); 2:1 (D), 1:0 (E) and 0:1 (F), to prepare soy‐corn milk. Dried flakes of soy‐corn milk were analysed for their in vitro digestibility (IVD) and assessed on the performance of rats fed with the test materials. Protein content of the blends increased with the increased amount of soybean in the blend. The IVD of Blend C (88 per cent) was superior to the IVD of all other test blends but was similar to that of casein (90 per cent). Highest weight gain, feed intake, estimated nitrogen intake, PER, BV and NPU were associated with Blend C, and values reported for this blend compared favourably with a casein diet. Implications of the results are discussed in terms of searching for a means of combating malnutrition.