Evaluation of the Contribution of Cassava Staple to the Recommended Dietary Allowance of Selected Nutrients Among the under Five Children in Mtwara Rural District, Tanzania

Abstract

This study aimed at evaluating the contribution of cassava recipe in meeting Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of the under five children for the selected nutrients (protein, fat, iron and zinc) in Mtwara rural district. This was achieved by identifying the common cassava recipes and the consumption pattern by using a 24h dietary recall and Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ). Proximate composition, mineral contents and anti-nutrients (cyanide and phytate contents) were also determined. The rate of consumption of a child was computed based on food portion and consumption frequency in a day. The sufficiency of nutrient of cassava recipes was determined on the basis of the quantity of food eaten per day. Computed nutrient intake was evaluated against the RDA of respective nutrient for respective age category. The findings indicate that the contribution of cassava to the RDAs of the respective nutrients were 19.4% for iron, 21% for zinc, 0.527% for fat and 4.26% for protein among the under five children which is extremely low. The anti-nutrient (phytate) content was far above the tolerable level of 25 mg/100g but cyanide was within the acceptable level. The computed Individual Dietary Diversity Score (IDDS) of 2.5 was similarly far below the target IDDS of 5. This implies an extremely poor dietary diversity indicative of very low consumption of food varieties including those of animal origin. It is thus important to develop strategies which encourage and make easy for dietary diversification among community members in order to complement Current Research in Nutrition and Food Science www.foodandnutritionjournal.org ISSN: 2347-467X, Vol. 07, No. (1) 2019, Pg. 190-201 CONTACT Leonard William Tungaraza Fweja [email protected] Department of Food and Nutrition, The Open University of Tanzania, P.O. Box 23409, Dar es salaam, Tanzania. © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Enviro Research Publishers. This is an Open Access article licensed under a Creative Commons license: Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY). Doi: doi.org/10.12944/CRNFSJ.7.1.19 Article History Received: 04 October 2018 Accepted: 01 April 2019