Development and quality evaluation of infant food with oregano essential oil for children diagnosed with cerebral palsy

- Effect of oregano essential oil and BHT on physical-chemical attributes of infant food.
- Oregano essential oils and BHT presented lower lipid oxidation after 28 days.
- Oregano essential oil decreased color losses, syneresis and maintained pH.

The development of a meat-based food, with a pasty texture, meets the need to improve the nutritional intake (mainly protein), in children diagnosed with cerebral palsy and dysphagia disorders. This study evaluated the use of oregano essential oil (EO) on the development of an infant food (IF) for children with cerebral palsy and dysphagia disorders, and the shelf-life (polyphenols content, antioxidant activity, lipid oxidation, color, pH, syneresis and adhesives) of the product during 28 days of storage. Four treatments were developed: Standard IF (STD), without EO; Control IF (CON), with BHT; IF with 0.01% EO (EO-0.01%), and IF with 0.05% EO (EO-0.05%). The results indicated that samples containing oregano EO presented higher antioxidant activity (p < 0.01) than CON and STD. Also, EO-0.05% presented the highest polyphenol content (p < 0.02). All samples showed an increase in malonaldehyde value during storage (p < 0.001), however, this increase was more accelerated for the STD and CON. Also, STD, CON and EO-0.01% showed a reduction in syneresis and all treatments showed a reduction in adhesiveness during storage. Sample EO-0.05% showed better results in most of the analyses compared to the other treatments, demonstrating that it is possible to use a natural compound in the development of this product.