Development of a Novel Poushtic Powder: Nutritional characteristics, Organoleptic properties, Morphology study, Storage, and Cost Analysis, of supplementary food for a vulnerable group in Midnapore

Abstract

Ready supplementary food has been the best choice to arrest hunger and malnutrition in developing countries. To develop low-cost with high nutritious supplementary food with locally available ingredients those fill up the requirements of nutrients of Indians per day at different age groups according to recommended dietary allowance. To prevent malnutrition and keep children healthy, the ICDS center provides several foods, one of which is poushtic laddu, which is made with rice, wheat, groundnut, gram flour, and sugar. The women of the self-help group mainly make these nutritious laddu ingredients and provide them to the ICDS center. There are currently several ICDS centers offering poushtic powders made by CINI known as Nutrimix, which is advised to feed the children as laddu at home. This laddu powder lags far behind in terms of nutrition and phytochemicals, this is the reason for submitting the report to improve the quality of this laddu in terms of nutrition. Three different poushtic powders were prepared, marked as P, PC, and PI by healthy and nutritious food ingredients which are locally available in the market and environment. After experiments, it was found that P, PI, and PC are best for protein (28.315g), iron (23.77mg), and calcium (325.502mg) content respectively. A sufficient amount of macro and micronutrients is present in all types of poushtic powders. Phytochemicals like ascorbic acid, gallic acid, chlorogenic acid, valinic acid, routine, trans-cinnamic acid, ferulic acid, quercetin, apigenin, and kaempferol are found to be present. Antioxidant activity like FRAP (12.854µmol/gm), ABTS (19.217µmol/gm) and DPPH (19.167µmol/gm) high in PC sample. Every poushtic powder is good in one way or another. SEM determines morphology and particle size with a correlation with hardness and fineness. The shelf life of the products is determined by different types of storage containers. In this study cost of the three products is analyzed for product marketing. Locally available ingredients help to prepare the low cost with high healthy and nutritious ready to supplementary food products that improve human health and nutritional status. The innovation of poushtic powder is the production of a low-cost supplemental product using locally accessible, nutritionally fortified ingredients, allowing those from poor socioeconomic groups to benefit. At the same time, villagers have the potential to turn it into a small-scale company and profit from it in the future.