LAUSR

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 43subjects were aware about the definition of food fortification (χ2 = 75.48, p <0.01) & 52subjects knew that salt should be compulsorily fortified with iodine in India (χ2 = 133.80, p <0.01).Over 76subjects consumed fortified foods (χ2 = 85.76, p <0.01)& while28 consumed because it’s healthy, other 28gave a mixed response (χ2 = 54.75, p <0.01). Only 64subjects responded that it’s affordable (χ2 = 13.17, p <0.01) and42subjects got aware about it by reading on the pack of the container or through TV/magazines/newspaper/internet (χ2 = 66.16, p <0.01). Breakfast cereals were consumed once in a while on a monthly basis; Breads and biscuits on a weekly basis; Snack bars on monthly basis; AmulTaaza 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.