Author(s): Ammatul Fatima and Dr. Sangita Srivastava

Abstract:
India has a higher prevalence of child malnutrition, which manifests as stunting and underweight problems in children. India is home to about one third of all malnourished children in the world. Of the 100 worst performing districts, 40 are in Uttar Pradesh, 22 in Bihar, 15 in Jharkhand, 12 in Madhya Pradesh, 10 in Rajasthan and 5 in Orissa. Malnutrition continues to be a major public health problem throughout the developing world. Malnutrition is consequently the most important risk factor for the burden of disease in developing countries. Long term malnutrition leads to “anaemia” affecting the general masses of the developing countries and so many other diseases like goitre, hypokalemia, teeth decay, vitamins deficiency has been there since years. More than thousands of wisely conducted intervention programmes for number of times could not even improve the scenario. This study focussed on adding spirulina as a dietary supplement in cookies, pasta and noodles to fortify the food product with enriching protein, calcium, iron, vitamin B12 phosphorus to enhance the foundation years of a child’s life. Spirulina is a blue green algae having very good nutritional value. It also has many therapeutic properties, in the same area the spirulina produces 20 times more protein than soya, and Spirulina typically contains about 60% protein. It is a good source of vitamin B12, Copper and iron. Spirulina protein is low in calories. There are 3.9 calories per gram of protein found in spirulina, which can be compared to 65 calories per gram of protein in beef. The researcher added spirulina in specific quantity to food product recipes of cookies, pasta and noodles. These were then assessed for their nutritive value under normal condition. The results indicated significantly increased values of protein, calcium, phosphorus and iron will not much change in the taste of the food products.