Date:08/09/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/08/stories/2008090850660200.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

‘Nutritious Recipes’ for children

K.V. Subramanya

BANGALORE: Food and Nutrition Board (FNB) of the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development has come out with a 70-page booklet that provides 60 recipes for low-cost nutritious food for children aged six months and above.

The booklet, “Nutritious Recipes”, contains information on ingredients required, method of preparation and nutritive value of 23 instant food mixes and 37 fresh preparations.

While Part I of the booklet contains information on preparation of instant food mixes utilising cereals, millets, pulses, nuts and oilseeds (optional), Part II has information on cooked preparations suitable for complementary feeding of infants and young children.

Some of the instant food mixes that find mention in the booklet are: wheat mix, wheat-green gram mix, maize food mix, puffed rice-Bengal gram mix, rice-soya mix, chidwa mix, ragi mix and bajra food mix.

There are recipes for fresh preparations such as suji porridge, ragi laddu, dalia khichri, vegetable cheera, wheat-besan burfi, sprouted salad, spinach pongal, jowar rabri and soup, among others.

Besides, the booklet contains annexure that provides nutritive value of some common food stuffs, recommended dietary allowances of Indians and balanced diet for infants and young children. The FNB has prepared the booklet to ensure that children are not undernourished because of inadequate feeding and instead get low-cost nutritive food.

Though the booklet has been designed mainly for field personnel of Integrated Child Development Service schemes and those engaged in promoting nutrition and health of infants and young children, it would be of great use to every household.