Twelfth International Conference on Food Studies

Abstract

Iron deficiency continues to be a public health concern in Ghana, especially among women of reproductive age; about 14% are iron deficient. An innovative strategy to increase iron intake to support existing efforts is food-to-food fortification. This involves the addition of nutrient-dense local foods mostly fruits and vegetables to culturally acceptable meals. Investigating ways to prolong shelf life and studying the functionality of potential food fortificants is important. This research used turkey berries and cowpea leaves. The study investigated the impact of different processing methods on functional properties, iron content, and bioavailability of iron from turkey berry and cowpea leaves powders. Turkey berries were blanched or osmotically dehydrated prior to air-drying at 70 ℃. Cowpea leaves were pre-treated using four methods followed by air-drying at 60 ℃. Iron content in powders was determined using inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy. Iron bioavailability was done via the Caco-2 cell bioassay. All the vegetable powders showed good water and oil absorption capacity, rehydrated, and dispersed well in water at room temperature. Even though turkey berries are believed to be high in iron in Ghana, cowpea leaves, a lesser-known vegetable, was significantly higher in iron (25.04 ± 0.64 g/100g) than turkey berries (4.36 ± 0.09 mg/100g.) Processing the leaves into powder reduced the iron content for all treatments up to 56.5%. Iron bioavailability was low (0.66 ± 0.127 to 1.47 ± 0.07 ng ferritin/mg cell protein) indicating that iron may be poorly absorbed from the vegetable powders. Additional meal-based bioavailability studies are also needed.