Published Paper Details:

Poor dietary diversity is one of the main reasons of maternal undernutrition and affects development of foetus. Take home ration (THR) which is provided under Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) to improve maternal nutrition is mostly not utilized by pregnant women. Therefore, the present study dealt with development of nutrient rich recipes using THR under snacks, desserts and appetizer categories. Thirty semi-trained panel members who qualified the threshold test performed organoleptic evaluation of the recipes in duplicates using nine-point hedonic scale. Data was also obtained on THR consumption amongst pregnant women. Nine recipes namely Mix veg muthiya, besan chilla, mix veg uttapam, thepla, handvo, namakpara, mixveg cutlets, upma, thalipeeth were developed under snacks. Desserts included five sweet recipes and appetizer included a tomato carrot soup. The salient feature of recipes was incorporation of locally available foods and THR to improve dietary diversity. Mix vegetable cutlets (8.54+0.51) and Shakkarpara (8.23+0.51) received the highest overall scores. Development of manual to educate pregnant women about the THR provided to them and how to use it for preparing the recipes was undertaken. A chart containing various combinations of these recipes to provide the recommended 145g of THR/day to pregnant women was a part of the manual. Cook and store recipes were also developed to ensure sustainability. Development of nutrient rich recipes using THR can help in improving the dietary intakes of pregnant women along with ensuring reduction in wastage of THR.