Standardization and Evaluation of Iron Fortified Bread

• Iron deficiency is the most common nutritional disorder in the world. It is mostly present in developing world and is said to affect over 2 billion people. Infants, preschool children and pregnant women are the main groups at risk for iron deficiency anemia. The only proven way it can be alleviated is through increase in iron intake, either by providing medicinal iron (supplementation) or by adding iron to the diet by fortification. The iron fortified bread was developed from refined wheat flour. Iron fortificants viz., ferrous sulphate, ferrous fumarate and ferrous ascorbate were incorporated in refined wheat flour at the level of 10, 20, 30 mg/100g to produce satisfactory iron fortified bread. Acceptable bread can be produced by addition of iron fortificants to refined wheat flour at 20mg/100g respectively. The ferrous sulphate fortified bread had high amount of ionizable iron percentage compared to the other fortificants, revealing better iron bioavailability. Storage shelf life of 3 days. The cost of iron fortified bread Rs.18.00 - 20.00 where was within the purchasing power of common man for nutrient enrichment at low cost.