Formulation and Comparative Analysis of a Fermented Indigenous Leafy Vegetable and Soy Blend for Amino Acid Profile Improvement

Abstract

The dietary amino acid requirement pattern established by the World Health Organization is the standard criterion for measurement of protein quality in food and treatment of malnutrition. Indigenous Leafy Vegetables (ILVs) in the region of Kenya are a source of proteins that are culturally acceptable but incomplete; their critical deficiency is in essential amino acids, mainly lysine and Methionine while others are available but limited to the WHO standards. Fermentation has been reported to improve the nutritional bioavailability but the possibility of producing a WHO-compliant complete protein from ILVs through this process has not been investigated extensively. Aiming to do so, the present study sets off to formulate and evaluate a soy-fortified fermented ILV blend through direct quantitative comparison against the WHO standard. In a randomized simulated design, a 1:1:1 mixture of Nightshade, African Spider Plant, and Slender leaf was simulated to fermentation using Lactobacillus plantarum, both without soy (S0) and with soy fortification (S1). The amino acid profiles were generated through a simulated HPLC and evaluated based on the Amino Acid Score (AAS). The formulation comprising of ILVs only remained substandard (AAS 84%), with lysine being the limiting amino acid. On the other hand, the soyfortified product attained an AAS of 118%, thus meeting or surpassing WHO requirement for all essential amino acids, thereby being classified as a high-quality complete protein. The study states that it is not fermentation alone but rather strategic soy fortification that is essential for the achievement of the WHOcompliant nutritional completeness. The optimized 60:40 vegetable-soy blend is a to validated by conducting actual experiment, locally sourced food model which can be used for the sustainable addressing of protein malnutrition in Kenya and other similar regions