Mineral Composition and Consumer Acceptability of Amaranthus Leaf Powder Supplemented for Improved Nutrition Security

Malnutrition, especially micronutrient deficiency, is a widespread health challenge that predominantly affects young children, young ladies who are within the productive age, refugees, and older adults who reside in rural communities and informal settlements in underdeveloped and developing countries. Malnutrition is caused by consuming either too little or too much of one or more food nutrients. Additionally, monotonous dietary lifestyle, especially the over-reliance on staple foods, is identified among the top factors limiting many individuals' intake of essential nutrients. Thus, enriching starchy and cereal-based staple foods including (steamed bread) with fruits and especially leafy vegetables is being suggested as a strategic medium for essential nutrient delivery to malnourished populations and especially the regular consumers. Amaranthus, called pigweed, has been rediscovered as a nutrient-dense multipurpose plant. The seed has been explored as a nutrient-enhancer in staple foods; however, the leaves are underutilized, especially in . This study aims to enhance the mineral content of . An integrated research approach was used where was self-processed into leaf powder. Amaranthus leaf powder (ALP), and the ALP-supplemented wheat flour prototypes 0%, 2%, 4%, and 6% were investigated for their mineral composition. Sensory evaluations of enriched were conducted using 60 panelists on a five-point hedonic scale. Findings show that the moisture contents of the raw materials and the supplemented prototypes were low, indicating a good shelf life of the food ingredient before being used for development. Carbohydrates of raw materials ranged from 41.6-74.3%, fat ranged from 1.58-4.47%, ash ranged from 2.37-17.97%, and protein ranged from 11.96-31.56%. Additionally, fat, protein, and ash content had significant differences at ( < 0.05). The moisture content of enhanced was equally low, connoting keeping quality of the sample. The increase concentration of ALP led to an enriched especially in the ash and protein content. Similarly, calcium, copper, potassium, phosphorus, manganese, and iron content were significantly influenced at ( < 0.05); 2% ALP-supplemented was the most acceptable prototype as the control sample, 6% was the least preferred prototype. Although ALP can enrich staple foods including (), this study declared that higher addition of ALP leads to low consumer acceptability rate of the which is not statistically significant. Amaranthus is an economical source of fiber, which was not investigated in the study. Therefore, further studies can explore the fiber content of the ALP-supplemented .