International Journal of Food, Nutrition & Dietetics

India is a country with heterogenic population having diverse food habits. Cost of health care has become a driving force in the shift towards a greater recognition between diet and health care This has spawned a new era of research leading to the use of few natural unprocessed foods like blue-green algae “spirulina” which has a galaxy of nutrients as diet supplements.The purpose of the present review is to compile evidence regarding the health benefits of spirulina. This review reveals that the greatest amount of evidence on health benefits are its effect in preventing anaemia,blood sugar and obesity .Relevant papers were identified from Science Direct, Google Scholar and pubmed by using all combinations of the search terms related to spirulina and health.

Keywords: Spirulina; Blue-Green Algae. 

The present study has been undertaken to review the “Hygienic Practices of Food Handlers in India”. Food Hygiene is concerned with the hygienic practices that prevent food poisoning. The study was conducted to know about the hygienic practices followed by food handlers in India; and secondary data was collected from different journals, books, internet, etc. Results depicted that the levels of personal hygiene of the food handlers in the eating establishments were found to be unsatisfactory. The findings highlight the importance of food hygiene education among the food handlers to incalculate the practices of good personal hygiene among the food handlers.

Keywords: Food Hygiene; Food Handler; Hygienic Practices. 

India is regarded as the ‘Home of Spices’. Alarge proportion of the spices imported globally every year comes from India. Use of such spices in traditional foods like pickles occupies an important place among the processedfoods in India. India is the second largest vegetable producer in world. Hence, processing of vegetables with traditional Indian spices has good scope for the trade development overseas. Different variants of gherkin (Cucumisanguria) pickles were developed using traditional Indian spices available locally. The pickles were packed in glass jars through aseptic packing technology by vacuum sealing and pasteurization. The developed pickles were studied for thephysico-chemical properties and sensory attributes soon after pasteurization and after 15 days of stabilization period. Further, the effect of heat treatment/pasteurization on the nutritional profile of the developed pickles after 15 days of stabilization period was studied.The study showed that use of spices in either fresh or dehydrated form, enhanced the sensory profile of gherkin pickles. The four variants of spice based picklesdeveloped, were well accepted among the panelistpre- and poststabilization. The addition of spices enhanced the nutrient content of the pickles when compared with plain gherkin vegetables.Though this study focused only on gherkin pickles, Indian spices can be very well explored in other vegetable products that can be processed and stored for longer time.

Keywords: Gherkin; Spice; Vacuum Sealing; Pasteurization; Osmosis; Stabilization. 

Weaning food must be supplied by the age of six months to fulfill the nutritional need of infant. Generally, the weaning foods available in market are prepared by using cereals and are costly. Although millets are equally nutritious, their use is avoided. The research work was planned to formulate millet based weaning food using finger millet, pearl millet and soybean. Different formulations were developed and evaluated sensorily. Formulation with the highest sensory score was considered as experimental formulation (EF) and evaluated for its antioxidant capacity and nutritional content. The EF was prepared by using Pearl millet: Finger millet: Soybean in the ratio of 30:35:35 with powdered Sugar (40%) and Milk Powder (10%). That possessed 13.81 ABTS, 48.83 DPPH and 53.76 FRAP antioxidant capacity. That also contained 13.52g% protein, 6.75g% fat, 2.53g% ash, 1.50g% fiber, 48.34g% carbohydrate, 227.57mg% calcium, 2.77mg% iron and 38.73mg% vitamin-C. It found better in all three types of antioxidant capacity as compared to control thus more beneficial for overall health maintenance. It was also superior in two principal nutrients required for growth and development of infants i.e. protein (17.56%) and fat (44.23%) and two important minerals i.e. calcium (21.66%) and Iron (30.05%) necessary for their bone and blood development, respectively as compared to control. The total antioxidant activities for all the three ABTS, DPPH and FRAP were found higher as compared to control. To meet the nutritional need of infants, 100g of supplementary mix is recommended daily coasting just 5 Rs. The product can be stored for 4 months under ambient condition. Thus a homemade, nutritionally balanced low coast weaning food could be formulated.

Keywords: Weaning Food; Infancy; Millets; Finger Millet; Peral Millet; Soybean. 

The progress and development in science and technology of baking has resulted in increased awareness of intrinsic nature of ingredients used. Present day bakers have a no. of ingredients that were unknown to their predecessor 20 years ago. Aims: To evaluate the quality parameters of raw ingredients used in bread baking and identify the consumer preference in the quality of bread required. Settings and Design: 22 bakery outlets. were covered by census method in 18 areas of Chennai city to cover 150 in house bread consumers. Methods and Material: Quality parameters of raw ingredients used in bread baking was experimentally done as per –ISI (1985) norms for bread flour . The consumer preference of bread was evaluated by questionnaire. Statistical analysis used: Percentage, Likert scale, one way anova and Kolmogorov-Smirinov test (K-s Test) were used. Results: The moisture percent of bread flour was significantly (11.9 percent) lesser compared to ISI (13 percent). Most favorable likert score (1.4) was given for appearance of bread and least score (0.5) for packing. Conclusions: The quality of ingredients play an important role in determining the quality of end product and consumer preference towards the product.

Keywords: Quality; Raw Ingredients; Bread; Parameters.