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CIAE Nutri-Bar and Multi-Nutrient Ladoo

Indian states have seen some improvements in child nutrition over the last decade, the first official data in over a decade shows, but over one in three children is still stunted, and over one in five underweight. The latest NFHS-4 data for 15 states shows that 37 percent of children under the age of five in these states is stunted, a fall of just five percentage points in a decade from (NFHS-3). Bihar and Madhya Pradesh are the worst off, with 48 and 42% respectively of children stunted. The proportion of underweight children has reduced equally slowly, from 39 to 34 %, with Bihar and Madhya Pradesh the worst off again. It is known that approximately 15 % of the SAM burden is medically complicated hence, as per the nationally represented data; Madhya Pradesh is home to about 1.89 lakhs children with medically complicated SAM. Since mortality rate in these children is approximately 9 times higher than a healthy child, it becomes imperative to provide them with immediate medical treatment and nutritional rehabilitation. There is an utter need to identify alternative feeding approaches other than formula feed to introduce nutrient dense food as well as adding variety to the children. Central Institute of Agriculture Engineering, Bhopal has developed nutritionally enriched RTE recipes, like “multi-nutrient bar” and multi-nutrient “ladoo” which may fulfill the need of nutritionally deprived children. This nutrient enriched product has already been analyzed for their nutritional, sensory and safety aspects and found acceptable among consumers. Multi-nutrient bars were prepared by combining various proportions of flaked oats, puffed rice, sprouted and flaked green gram and soybean, malted finger millet, milk powder, roasted and crushed peanuts, raisins and papaya). The sweetener used in the bar was jaggery instead of refined sugar. Protein, ash, phenolic, flavonoid content and antioxidant activity of the formulated bar were significantly higher than reference bars available in the market. The jaggery-based bar was found to have 10g protein (40% higher than a commercial bar), 6 mg of iron and 214 mg phosphorus, 112mg GAE phenolics, 1 mg flavonoids in 100g of nutribar. Composite flour laddoo was formulated using a mix of cereals, sprouted legumes, malted millet, dairy ingredients, fruit, oil, and jaggery. The laddoo was significantly softer in texture, resulting in ease in biting, chewing and swallowing. The laddoo contained protein (24.6g), iron (10.4mg) and phosphorus (287.5mg), phenolics (123.0 GAE) mg flavonoids (6.9 QE) mg and antioxidant activity (62.6% RSA) in 100g. The organoleptic evaluation also showed higher acceptability (8).