Nutritional supplements, known as "multimisturas", prepared with low cost ingredients have been distributed in Brazil by municipal governments, in partnership with non-governmental organizations, in order to reduce infant malnutrition. Nevertheless the efficacy of these supplements has been constantly argued, due to the possible presence of anti-nutritional factors. The present work describes the biological evaluation of a supplement containing Quality Protein Maize BR 473. Thirty six 21-23-day old male Wistar rats were divided into six groups of six animals each. The groups were fed casein diets, each containing respectively: "multimistura", "multimistura" with QPM BR 473, "multimistura" with powdered milk, "multimistura" with powderedmilk and QPM BR 473 or the proposed new supplement (containing QPM BR 473 flour, oat meal, soybean flour, brown sugar and banana meal). Net protein retention was measured. Microbiological condition and cost of the supplements were also determined. The results showed that QPM BR 473 can be used in nutritional supplements, with high nutritional value, as expressed by its protein quality, and low cost/benefit ratio.
maize; protein quality; nutritional supplement
