Food to food fortification of breads and biscuits with herbs, spices, millets and oilseeds on bio-accessibility of calcium, iron and zinc and impact of proteins, fat and phenolics

The study evaluated substituting refined wheat flour (RWF) with malted finger-millet, oilseeds, spices and herbs to improve Ca, Fe and Zn and its bio-accessibility in breads and biscuits. Proteins, fat and phenolics as factors of mineral bio-accessibility were also studied. Ingredients and products like breads viz. RWF (C1); sesame, cumin, moringa (T1), sesame, finger-millet (T2) and sesame (T3); biscuits viz. RWF (C2), soy-butter salty (T4) and soybutter sweet (T5) were analyzed for total and bio-accessible Ca, Fe and Zn, protein, fat and phenolics. T1 contained highest total and bio-accessible calcium (276 and 197 mg/100g) and total and bio-accessible iron (4.5 and 3.2 mg/100g). T4 contained highest total and bio-accessible zinc (3.1 and 2.2 mg/100g). Both T1 and T4 contained dried moringa leaves (1321 mg calcium, 4.7 mg iron in 100g), good amounts of protein and lower content of phenolics compared to other test products. Consuming 50g of T1 or 100g of T4 takes care of nearly 1/ 2 of the RDA of calcium, 1/4 of the RDA for iron and 1/6 of the RDA for zinc for children (7-9 y). Enriched breads and biscuits were good sources of bio-accessible minerals and could contribute in improving mineral profiles of diets.