Development of rice analogues fortified with iron, folic acid and Vitamin A.

Fortified rice analogues were developed utilising the broken-rice fortified with selected micronutrients like iron, folic acid and Vitamin A. The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility of fortifying rice analogues with micronutrients and retention after extrusion and cooking. Cold extruder operated at 55 rpm screw speed and 1.5 kg/h feed rate was used for the study. The composite flour prepared using broken-rice flour, sodium alginate (1%), water (30%) and micronutrient mix was extruded through rice shaped die at barrel temperature of 60 °C. The level of fortifying nutrient ready mix (FNRM) was statistically optimised based on retention of nutrients after extrusion and cooking. The retention results for iron was observed to be 73.3 to 91.3 per cent after cooking whereas folic acid and Vitamin A being sensitive to processing and culinary operations were 44.2 to 60.4 and 10.1 to 12.4 per cent, respectively. Statistical optimisation resulted 150 per cent of FNRM could supply nutrient levels nearing the standards with the desirability of 0.835. The production cost was calculated as Rs.53.50 per kg whereas, increase in the cost of raw rice mixed with fortified analogues @ 1:50 ratio was about Rs.1.00 per kg with benefit-cost ratio of 1.22:1.