Utilization of finger millet in traditional recipes of tribal for household nutritional security in Jharkhand

Each region has its own traditional food habits. One of the ways to combat malnutrition is through enriching the traditional recipes, which are liked and accepted by the population. Thus, value addition was given to traditional recipes by incorporating finger millet for nutritional security of tribal in Jharkhand.

Two popular recipes of tribal namely Laddoo and Dhuska were selected under study for enrichment through incorporation of finger millet to provide micronutrient security to selected population. Many initial trials were conducted during the year 2017-18 in the laboratory to standardize the extent of incorporation. The developed recipes were tested organoleptically by a panel of twenty semi trained judges using 9-point hedonic rating scale. Both finger millet enriched recipes were analyzed for proximate composition, Ca, Fe, Cu, Zn and β-carotene.

Two types of laddoo were tried out and score of majority of sensory characteristics fell in the category of ‘Liked very much’ where as majority of organoleptic characteristics of finger millet incorporated dhuska were in the Category of ‘Moderately Liked’. Incorporation of finger millet enhanced the content of total mineral, fiber, Ca, Cu, Zn and β carotene.