Acceptability of Complementary Porridge Enriched with Cricket Flour Compared to Corn-Soy Blend Plus Among Child-Caregiver Dyads in Siaya County, Kenya

In the recent past there has been a global interest in insects as human food, yet their acceptability in some populations remains a challenge. This challenge, deprives the world of an alternative protein, as well as essential vitamins and minerals found in insects. This evaluation study was nested in a randomized control trial (RCT) to establish the comparative levels of acceptability of porridge made from flour enriched with edible cricket (+CR) and another from Corn-Soy Blend Plus (-CR), when fed to children from 6-14 months of age. The child’s acceptability was monitored in the entire period of RCT implementation with qualitative evaluation done at the end of RCT implementation. Four focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted with the caregivers while child’s acceptability was assessed by the frequency of consumption and how well the child signaled for more porridge during feeding from routine data collected monthly over the eight months trial period. The two porridges at the first revisit, had an acceptability level of 79.7% and 80.3% which rose to 98.3% and 99.2% for +CR and -CR, respectively over the 8-month period. During the seven monthly revisits, the enrolled children aggressively signaled for more porridge in an average of 5.6 visits for the two porridges. Qualitative evaluation results reveal that at the onset of the study and introduction of the new food, mothers were anxious and this cleared as the child accepted the new food. This observed high level of acceptance can largely be attributed to the porridge’s organoleptic (such as aroma, texture and taste) properties, energy contribution observed in child activity and how the child consumed it when offered. High level of acceptance of the two porridges and particularly, the one enriched with cricket powder, emphasizes the significance of timing, sensory aspects and society stance. This study, therefore, recommends early introduction with a repeated consumption of a tasty, safely processed /cooked and served cricket-based food for a higher acceptability.