Development of nutri-rich powder for pregnant/lactating women

Pregnancy and lactation are the two states, which need increased nutritional demand like protein, calcium, iron etc. in women. The study is part of the effort to provide nutritional food that can be more cost effective for pregnant/lactating women. To cater the elevated demand of nutrition, moth bean and finger millet were selected as major ingredients, being richer sources of iron and calcium respectively. The processing steps like soaking and germination helped to lower anti-nutritional factors. The best germination time was optimized for both, moth bean and finger millet based upon reduction in the phytic acid and trypsin inhibitor activity and increase in amylase activity with optimum yield. The best germination period selected for moth bean and finger millet were 36 h at 30ºC and 24 h at 30ºC respectively with 80% RH. The formulation was optimized using Response Surface Methodology at five levels of three variables viz. moth bean flour, finger millet flour and barley malt extract. The optimized product was prepared by mixing germinated and roasted moth bean (21.98%) and finger millet (19.37%) flours with skim milk and barley malt extract (20%), followed by cooking (100ºC, 5 min.), vacuum drying (70ºC, 700 mm Hg), grinding and sieving. The developed nutri-rich food contained 16.74g protein, 5.70 mg iron, 284.49 mg calcium and 1.8 mg zinc, which can provide very good nutrition as per recommendations by ICMR for pregnant/lactating women. The product cost was around 122 INR per kg and it was shelf stable up to 180 days of ambient storage.