A Study on Awareness and Consumption of Fortified Foods among Female Adults of Mumbai

Introduction Food fortification is likely to have played an important role in current nutritional health and well-being of populations in industrialized countries. Malnutrition is one of the biggest development challenges facing the world. Over 2 billion people lack the essential vitamins and nutrients needed to grow and live healthy lives. Aim To assess the awareness, attitude and consumption of females towards food fortification in Mumbai. Method A study was conducted on 100 females between the age group of 18 to 60 years using a structured questionnaire. A statistical package of social sciences (SPSS) version 16 was used for analysis. Results Over 43 subjects were aware about the definition of food fortification (2 = 75.48, p less than0.01)& 52 subjects knew that salt should be compulsorily fortified with iodine in India (2 = 133.80, p less than0.01). Over 76 subjects consumed fortified foods (2 = 85.76, p less than0.01)& while 28 consumed because its healthy, other 28 gave a mixed response (2 = 54.75, p less than0.01). Only 64 subjects responded that its affordable (2 = 13.17, p less than0.01) and 42 subjects got aware about it by reading on the pack of the container or through TV/magazines/newspaper/internet (2 = 66.16, p less than0.01). Breakfast cereals were consumed once in a while on a monthly basis, Breads and biscuits on a weekly basis, Snack bars on monthly basis, Amul Taaza Milk, Gemini Refined Sunflower Oil and Tata salt plus were on a daily basis and all Beverages were of mixed combinations. Conclusion The overall awareness regarding food fortification was poor. Although the attitude was not purposeful towards fortified foods, the consumption was unconsciously more due to the availability of such products in the market.