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Iron deficiency anaemia is widely prevalent amongst women and children in India. The aim of the paper is to study the effect of supplementation of micronutrient fortified biscuits on haemoglobin and serum iron levels of adolescent girls (n = 46, 10‐16 years) studying in a government school in Jaipur city, India.

The study was designed to be an intervention study. The intervention was with biscuits fortified with 30 mg iron, 100  μg folic acid, 600  μg vitamin A, 40 mg vitamin C and 150  μg iodine. The iron status of adolescent girls was determined through haemoglobin and serum iron levels.

The results revealed that 95.7 per cent of the adolescent girls suffered from anaemia of which 28.3 per cent had “mild” deficiency and 67.4 per cent had “moderate” deficiency. Anaemia was more prevalent in the older age groups. On supplementation, there was a significant increase in the haemoglobin levels. There was a three‐fold increase in the percentage of adolescent girls in the “normal” category of anaemia from 4.3 to 13.0 per cent and more than two‐fold decrease in the “moderate” category of anaemia from 67.4 to 28.3 per cent. Moreover, 21.7 per cent of the subjects had “normal” levels while the rest (78.3 per cent) had low levels of serum iron; the percentage of adolescent girls in the normal category increased to 93.5 per cent after intervention on the basis of serum iron levels.

Supplementation with iron and folic acid with other micronutrients improved the haemoglobin and serum iron levels of the adolescent girls significantly.

The paper recommends that the school system can be used for micronutrient supplementation to improve the nutritional status of children and adolescents as the students are more regimented here for distribution of nutrient fortified food products.

The aim of the present nutritional survey was to assess the food consumption pattern of 183 Indian preschool children (four to five years) in Fatehabad district of Haryana.

Data regarding food frequency, myths and intake were collected with the help of questionnaires and structured interviews. Food consumption patterns were recorded using a 24‐hour recall for three consecutive days.

The food frequency pattern indicated that wheat was the most accepted cereal among almost all the families and the consumption of pulses was weekly or on alternate days. They consumed roots and tubers frequently but the consumption of green leafy vegetables, fruits and other vegetables depended on the availability only. Most of the families consumed buffalo's milk (93 per cent) and desi ghee (73 per cent) daily. More than half of the respondents' mothers believed bajra, maize (corn), some pulses, bathua (Chenopodium album) and fenugreek leaves, onion, garlic, ginger, desi ghee and sweets are hot foods. According to the 24‐hour recall method for three consecutive days, the daily mean intake of all foodstuffs, namely, cereals, pulses, green leafy vegetables, roots and tubers, other vegetables, fruits, fats and oils, milk and milk products and sugar and jaggery was lower than their respective recommended dietary intake in the daily diets of preschool children.

On the basis of findings of this study, nutrition policy makers can plan the strategies for improving the nutritional status of preschool children who are an important segment of the Indian population.

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the impact of editorial policy towards being both inclusive and international on the quantitative metrics of the journal.

A bibliometric analysis was performed.

The chief areas of impact, along with trends in methodologies and international contribution and collaboration are discussed.

A review of the British Food Journal over the past ten years.

The purpose of this paper is to develop two types of ladoo from pearl millet grain subjected to processing treatment i.e. popping. The paper also aims to analyse the developed popped pearl millet ladoo for nutritional evaluation.

Pearl millet forms a staple food for large population living below poverty line. The fat, proteins and minerals of millet is comparable to other cereals but rough texture, lack of gluten and typical flavour of grain limit their uses in various food preparation. So pearl millet grain was subjected to popping (method given in research paper). Popping produces low bulk density and improved in vitro digestibility. Two types of ladoo were prepared from popped pearl millet. In I type, roasted and dehulled chickpea and groundnut were also added to improve the nutritional quality, whereas II type of ladoo was prepared using 100 per cent popped pearl millet.

The research revealed that type I popped pearl millet ladoo had significantly higher calcium, phosphorus and iron content. Higher polyphenol and phytic acid and lower in vitro protein and starch digestibility were also found in type I ladoo. Cellulose and lignin content was found to be more in type II ladoo compared to type I ladoo.

Literature regarding the puffing of pearl millet was very less and utilization of popped pearl millet for product development was scanty. Moreover, not much study has been done on nutritional evaluation of popped pearl millet product. This research paper provides a new avenue for diversifying the uses of this underutilized pearl millet for increasing its consumption.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for composite flour bread produced with a blend of 15-40 per cent cassava flour blended with wheat flour in Ghana.

The analysis is based on interviews with 350 consumers in the Ashanti and Eastern Regions of Ghana to assess their awareness, perceptions and WTP for cassava-wheat composite bread. From these consumer interviews, a hedonic regression model was applied to evaluate consumers’ WTP for various attributes of composite flour bread. Price-related and health-related perceptions of consumers on cassava-wheat composite bread were investigated with perception indices. Multi-attribute preference-based contingent ratings that rate product attributes in terms of importance to consumers was employed. The implicit prices of the product attributes representing the contribution of the product attributes to the WTP amount were also computed.

The paper finds that consumers who are aware of cassava-blended flour bread and who like its taste and texture are willing to pay more than consumers who are unaware. This leads to a policy recommendation advocating increased advertising of the economic and nutritional benefits of cassava-wheat blended composite flour bread.

Future studies should explore the choice experiments to examine preferences for the food product.

This paper evaluates consumers’ WTP for composite flour bread produced with a blend of 15-40 per cent cassava flour and wheat flour. Given widespread reliance on imported wheat flour and the simultaneously large volumes of locally available cassava, it is important to consider opportunities for import substitution (and possible cost reduction for consumers) of blended flour products such as cassava-wheat composite flours. Nigeria has imposed a 10 per cent blending requirement for this reason. Ghana has taken important measures recently for the development of high-quality cassava flour, and so research on its potential and actual uptake is welcomed and highly relevant to food security and agribusiness development.

The purpose of this paper to standardize the technique for the development of potato flour and to incorporate it in development of the products along with defatted soy flour and maize flour. Also, effect of processing techniques like frying and fermentation on anti‐nutritional content of the products was studied.

The ingredients as well as developed products were analyzed for the macronutrients, viz protein, ash and fat. Also anti‐nutrients like phytic acid, saponin, polyphenols and trypsin inhibitors were estimated by employing standard techniques. Data thus obtained were subjected to analysis of variance according to standard method of statistical analysis.

Potato flour being a versatile ingredient can be easily incorporated in development of various products. Frying and fermentation resulted in decrease of anti‐nutritional factors.

These developed products could be instrumental in alleviating malnutrition as they have high nutritional value and are low in anti‐nutrients.

The purpose of this paper is to address malnourishment in developing countries by a food-based approach in which locally produced and consumed foods are improved by applying food processing techniques that benefit the amount and availability of desirable nutrients.

To facilitate this approach, this paper reports on the composition and in vitro micronutrient accessibility of 14 traditional mung bean foods from India in relation to their preparation methods.

Proximate composition, in vitro mineral accessibility, phytic acid and polyphenol contents varied among the range of products. Products requiring either fermentation or germination, had higher in vitro iron, zinc and calcium accessibility. Average in vitro iron, zinc and calcium accessibility of the mung bean products were 16, 9 and 418 mg kg−1 dry weight. Phytic acid and polyphenols averaged 2.1 and 1.8 g kg−1 dry weight, respectively, and were negatively correlated with in vitro mineral accessibility.

Different mung bean products (100 g) cover 12.0-59.5, 5.2-45.6, 4.2-28.6 and 1.1-7.1 per cent of the recommended dietary allowance for protein, iron, zinc and calcium, respectively, for seven- to nine-year-old Indian children.

This study demonstrated the wide range of traditional mung bean foods in India and presents options to tackle malnourishment by a food-based approach.

This study aims to report on the nutritional profile of preschool children of 4 to 5 years.

The data on raw food intake of the randomly selected subjects were collected by 24hr recall method for three consecutive days and the mean was taken. Daily intake of various nutrients by each subject was calculated using MSU Nutriguide and this was further compared with RDA recommended by ICMR to assess the adequacy of their diets.

The analysis revealed that the intake of protein, fat, calcium, thiamine, folic acid and vitamin B₁₂ was more than or equal to Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) as recommended by the Indian Council of Medical Research, while the intake of energy, iron, vitamin C, niacin and riboflavin was less than their respective RDAs. The intake of β‐carotene was marginally adequate. Boys consumed significantly more amount of energy and folic acid than girls.

A large number of samples could not be taken owing to practical difficulties.

The study is original and innovative. The findings are useful for the policy makers and nutritionists who have to implement supplementary feeding programmes.

This paper aims to study the changes in anti‐nutritional factors during the germination of the Indian bean and also to carryout an evaluation by subjecting it to different cooking treatments – boiling, roasting and pressure cooking.

The healthy Indian bean (Dolichos lablab L.) seeds were soaked for 12 h and allowed to germinate (sprout) at room temperature 27±2^○C for a period of 32 h. Seedlings were withdrawn at designated time intervals and used for analysis of anti‐nutritional factors like trypsin inhibitory activity (TIA), phytic acid, polyphenols and tannins of dried and germinated cotyledons. They were also evaluated regarding their changes by subjecting to different cooking treatments – boiling, roasting and pressure cooking.

The raw dry Indian bean had a very high TIA which decreases progressively to 17 per cent at 32 h germination period. An overall fall in polyphenols of 70 per cent, tannins 46 per cent, phytic acids 36 per cent and phytate phosphorus to 30 per cent was noticed during the 32 h germination period. Maximum reduction was observed in TIA and phytic acids with roasting, while the boiling and pressure cooking decreases the levels of polyphenols and tannins.

The paper proves that germination is a more effective method in reducing TIA, tannins, polyphenols and phytic acid than the various cooking treatments.

Measures of dietary diversity are relatively simple and associated with nutrient adequacy and nutritional status. The aim of this study is to validate dietary diversity score (DDS) as an indicator of nutrient adequacy of diet of Indian rural children aged five to eight years.

A cross‐sectional survey among 232 children (five to eight years) was conducted using a 24 h recall. Food variety score (FVS) and DDSs were calculated. Probability of adequacies of vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, iron and zinc, and mean probability of adequacy was used to assess nutrient adequacy. To determine associations between dietary diversity and nutrient adequacy, nutrient adequacy and socio‐economic status (SES), partial rank correlations were conducted.

Vitamin C and iron had the lowest probability of adequacy (PA) while vitamin A and zinc had the highest PA. Mean probability of adequate micronutrient intake (MPA) across five micronutrients was 40 percent. Mean DDS was 6.5 and mean FVS was 12.2. DDS was significantly correlated (p < 0.01) with PA vitamin A (r = 0.17), PA vitamin C (r = 0.36) and mean MPA (r = 0.21). Correlations for FVS were significant and stronger than those of DDS with all micronutrients. Adjustments for SES indicators did not further change the correlations. The best DDS cut‐off point for nutritionally adequate diet with MPA of 75 percent was between six and seven food groups.

DDS and FVS can be useful tools to give a good indication of nutritional adequacy of diet in resource‐poor settings. Additionally, a DDS between six and seven should suffice to identify subjects with a nutritionally adequate diet with MPA of 75 percent with optimal sensitivity and specificity.