Author(s): Aruna Palta, Anjul Aggarwal

Abstract:
The inhabitants of Chhattisgarh the “Rice Bowl” of India, eat Rice in all the meals as a staple cereal and they also use Rice as a main ingredient in all their other food preparations. Rice is a good source of Carbohydrate and hence is quite energy dense but is deficient in a number of essential amino acids. So this study was undertaken and 18 traditional recipes popularly consumed in Urban, Rural and Tribal Chhattisgarh were value added by functional ingredients like soy flour, soy milk & soy curd. It was observed that the energy value of such recipes rose in a range of 6.23% to 23.52% while the protein content dramatically shooted up in a range of 19.66% to 457.64%. This study supports the view that to combat malnutrition and to prepare low cost balanced foods, value addition can play a major role.