Development of Vitamin A fortified lassi using natural sources

Abstract

Micronutrient deficiency diseases is one of the common and widespread problem which requires immediate attention. Amongst various deficiency issues, vitamin A deficiency as occupied a prominent role not only in rural population but amongst urban population as well. The reasons can be attributed to either changing lifestyle or ignorance towards health. Therefore, the remedial action should be such which requires minimum efforts to combat the same. Dairy products only provide about 6-9% of total vitamin A intake in Indian diet without any fortification. Hence, fortification of such kind of milk and milk based products with vitamin A will improve the nutritional status of such foods as functional foods. Considering the same, mango and beetroot powder were used for fortification and different ratios were assessed for overall acceptability.

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The Pharma Innovation Journal 2017; 6(11): 326-329
ISSN (E): 2277- 7695
ISSN (P): 2349-8242
NAAS Rating 2017: 5.03
TPI 2017; 6(11): 326-329
© 2017 TPI
www.thepharmajournal.com
Received: 15-09-2017
Accepted: 16-10-2017
Rekha Chawla
Assistant Professor (Dairy
Technology), College of Dairy
Science and Technology, Guru
Angad Dev Veterinary and
Animal Sciences University
(GADVASU), Ludhiana, Punjab,
India
S Sivakumar
Assistant Scientist (Dairy
Technology), College of Dairy
Science and Technology, Guru
Angad Dev Veterinary and
Animal Sciences University
(GADVASU), Ludhiana, Punjab,
India
Correspondence
Rekha Chawla
Assistant Professor (Dairy
Technology), College of Dairy
Science and Technology, Guru
Angad Dev Veterinary and
Animal Sciences University
(GADVASU), Ludhiana, Punjab,
India
Development of Vitamin A fortified lassi using natural
sources
Rekha Chawla and S Sivakumar
Abstract
Micronutrient deficiency diseases is one of the common and widespread problem which requires immediate
attention. Amongst various deficiency issues, vitamin A deficiency as occupied a prominent role not only
in rural population but amongst urban population as well. The reasons can be attributed to either changing
lifestyle or ignorance towards health. Therefore, the remedial action should be such which requires
minimum efforts to combat the same. Dairy products only provide about 6-9% of total vitamin A intake in
Indian diet without any fortification. Hence, fortification of such kind of milk and milk based products
with vitamin A will improve the nutritional status of such foods as functional foods. Considering the same,
mango and beetroot powder were used for fortification and different ratios were assessed for overall
acceptability.
Keywords: Vitamin A, Beetroot, Mango, Fortification, Deficiency
1. Introduction
India with 2.5 percent of the global land mass and 16 percent of the global population recognized
the importance of human resources as the engines powering national development and gave high
priority to improvement of the health and nutritional status of the population. Also, been in the
forefront in developing national food and nutrition databases, research studies and surveys
documenting the ongoing agriculture, food, nutrition and health transitions are going on.
However, despite of all the efforts the major concern related to combating with the needs of
micronutrients deficiencies are still can be said as half job done. Therefore, during the past
decade, micronutrient deficiencies have been attracting attention of both academicians and
administrators. In India, the micronutrient deficiencies of public health significance are vitamin
A deficiency, iodine deficiency disorders and iron deficiency anaemia. Though the latter two
deficiencies were being addressed on a national level using fortification studies at one level or
the other. However, vitamin A deficiency is still being the concern for government and well as
for policy makers as even mild deficiency of vitamin A, which is more widespread and is
associated with the increased risk of morbidity and mortality of young children. Diet surveys
have shown that the intake of vitamin A is significantly lower than the recommended daily
allowance in young children, adolescent girls and pregnant women. In these vulnerable sub
groups, multiple nutritional problems such as inadequate intake of energy and micronutrients
other than vitamin A also coexist. The most recent survey data obtained from 8 state surveys in
2003 suggested that 62% of preschoolers in India are vitamin A deficient, having serum retinol
concentrations lower than 20 ug/dL. The data obtained by various research publications, surfing
a computerized bibliographic search via PubMed, Web of Science and Google Scholar etc,
revealed that there is an urgent need to address this problem and providing solutions for the
same.
Considering the above facts and figures along with severity of problem in mind, vitamin A
fortification was planned using dairy based fermented beverages or products; like lassi and Dahi,
as it is always accepted that dairy products are good sources for fortification strategies, not only
due to worldwide consumption by all groups at risk of deficiency, but also because of the high
nutritional value, along with added advantages of buffer effect in digestion and absorption
process, and the positive effects on growth, cognition, and morbidity. Otherwise, dairy products
only provide about 6-9% of total vitamin A intake in Indian diet without any fortification. The
fortification of such kind of milk and milk based products with vitamin A helps to improve the
nutritional status of such foods as functional foods.
Since fermented milk products are among highly consumed food in the world, they have been
used to deliver nutritional components into human diet. Furthermore, fortification of these

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The Pharma Innovation Journal
products is a good way to improve nutrient intake in daily food
products (Preedy et al., 2013) [1]. Fermented dairy products are
good, and in some cases excellent, sources of nutrients namely
calcium, protein and potassium (McGill et al., 2008) [2].
Fortification of fermented dairy products with nutritionally rich
sources of vitamin A is often been considered and few
categories like mango powder and beetroot powder stands at
high priority as it improves the nutritional as well as therapeutic
value of conventional product, when made in combinations.
Also, fruit based fermented dairy products would offer several
distinct nutritional advantages over the plain fermented dairy
products to the consumer.
Mango is a seasonal fruit grown in tropical regions. The fruit is
good source of phytochemicals and nutrients, and so as is the
pulp. It is high in prebiotic dietary fiber, vitamin C, diverse
polyphenols and provitamin A carotenoids (Ajila and Rao,
2008) [3]. The antioxidant, vitamins A and C, Vitamin B6
(pyridoxine), folate, other B vitamins and essential nutrients,
such as potassium, copper and amino acids, are also present in
good amounts in mango fruit pulp (USDA, 2010) [4]. Besides
all, the carotenoid content of mango has been reported as 553
ug/100 g edible portions (Setiawan et al., 2001) [5] whereas it is
1.9 mg/100g in beetroot (Rebecca et al., 2014) [6]. Along with
carotenoids, beetroot is an excellent source of iron and has been
regarded as a laxative, a cure for bad breath, coughs and
headaches and even as aphrodisiac (Yadav et al., 2016) [7].
Beetroot has large content of betanin i.e. 300-600 mg/kg and
lower content of iso-betanin, betanidin and betaxanthins
(Kanner et al., 2001) [8]. Betalains as natural antioxidants, may
provide protection against oxidative stress related disorder
(Kanner et al., 2001; Tesoriere et al., 2005) [8, 9]. Apart from
this, beetroot is known to contain large amounts of soluble
fibers, flavonoids and betacyanin. It helps to reduce the
oxidation of LDL cholesterol and does not allow it to deposit
on the walls of the artery.
Considering the well-known health benefits of mango and
beetroot and to eradicate difference in quality attributes,
powders of both the commodities were tried and functional
vitamin A enriched dairy drink –lassi was prepared.
2. Material and Methods
2.1 Preparation of curd
The milk was obtained from Experimental Plant of College of
Dairy Science and Technology, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary
and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana and standardization
was done to 3% milk fat and 10% SNF. After heating to 750 C,
the milk was cooled to 370 C and cultured with NCDC 167. The
cultured milk was incubated at 370 C for 6 hours or until 0.6 to
0.8% acidity was achieved.
2.2 Processing of Raw Material
The mango powder and beetroot powder were purchased from
Calensa Agro Biotech, Pune. For incorporation in fermented
dairy product, mango powder was used in natural form whereas
for beetroot, the juice was extracted from beetroot powder. In
case of beetroot, direct addition was not found appropriate due
to coarse nature of the same and ultimate sedimentation in lassi.
Therefore, beetroot powder was immersed for 2 hours in hot
water and extract thus obtained after straining through muslin
cloth was further used for fortification.
2.3 Preparation of fermented dairy product-lassi
The curd and lassi were processed in the Post graduate
laboratory of College of the Dairy Science and Technology.
For lassi preparation, 50% dilution was made. The curd was
churned with small quantity of water using a hand blender
(Philips, 250 W) and made into lassi. To this, 7% sugar was
dissolved in small quantity of water and further added into
lassi.
2.4 Physico-chemical analysis
The samples were analysed in three replications for every
parameter. The moisture content, protein, ash, acidity and total
soluble solids were determined according to AOAC method
(AOAC, 2000) [10]. The kjeldahl method was used for protein
estimation and a conversion factor of 6.25 was used. The
titratable acidity was determined by titrating the lassi with 0.1
N NaOH and expressed as percent lactic acid. The hand
refractrometer (Erma, Japan) was used for total soluble solids
at 200 C. Fat content of flavoured lassi was estimated using
Rose- Gottlieb method. The weighed sample was extracted in
ethyl ether and petroleum ether as per standard method. Mixed
ethers were evaporated and residue obtained thus was fat
available in the sample. The total sugars were estimated with
Lane and Eynon method of BIS (BIS, 1981) [11]. The
pyknometer was used for determination of specific gravity of
flavoured lassi maintained at 200 C. The viscosity of all
prepared samples was measured with Brookfield Viscometer
(LV DV2T) using LV- 0 1 (61) spindle at 50 C. Brookfield
viscometers employ the principle of rotational viscometry i.e.
the torque required to turn an object, such as a spindle, in a fluid
indicating the viscosity of the fluid.
2.5 Sensory evaluation
Samples of lassi containing different levels of mango powder
and extracted beetroot juice were evaluated by 5 judges semi
trained panel for attributes of colour/appearance, mouthfeel,
richness, sweetness, flavour and overall acceptability scores on
a 9- point hedonic scale (Larmond, 1982) [12].
2.6 Statistical analysis
The experimental data was analysed for analysis of variance
(ANOVA) using SPSS software (Version 20) and expressed as
values were average of three observations. The least significant
difference (post hoc) was also calculated and superscripts with
different alphabets showed difference amongst variables.
3. Results and Discussion
The fermented dairy product - lassi was prepared with varying
levels of mango powder and beetroot powder. Different levels
of powders were tried 2.5, 5, 7.5 and 10 percent for mango
powder and 1, 2, 3 and 4 percent for beetroot powder (Table 1).
Above ranges of these (5 percent for beetroot and more than 10
for mango were also tried) but were not found appropriate for
sensory studies due to more viscosity than desired.
Table 1: Treatments of mango powder and beetroot powder
Treatment
Mango powder
Treatment
Beetroot powder
Control
0
Control
0
T1
2.5
P1
1
T2
5.0
P2
2
T3
7.5
P3
3
T4
10
P4
4
3.1 Effect of addition of mango powder and beetroot
powder on physico-chemical properties of lassi
The addition of both the powders in lassi caused a significant
(p< 0.05) increase in various physico-chemical properties

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(Table 2). The control sample had 11.51 percent total solids
which increased to 19.77 percent with addition of 10 percent
mango powder and 15.15 percent with 4 percent beetroot
powder. This increase was due to high total solids in mango
powder and extracted beetroot juice. Results of total solids are
in concurrent with the studies undertaken by [13] Bajwa and
Mittal, 2015 in which significant increase in total solids with
mango pulp addition was observed. Yadav et al., 2016 [7]
reported similar kind of results with respect to increase in total
solids, when beetroot powder was added to yoghurt @ 6 - 10
percent. Also increasing trend was found in total soluble solids
with augmented levels of mango powder and beetroot powder.
It increased from 9.80 0B to 17.00 0B in mango powder and to
11.30 0B in beetroot powder, when added @ 10 and 4 percent,
respectively. Comparative to mango powder, less amount of
TSS was observed in beetroot powder and can be attributed to
more sweet nature of mango and use of extract in lassi from
beetroot. Also while evaluating acidity, mango based lassi was
found to have more elevated levels of acidity compared to
beetroot lassi. Similar findings were reported by [14] Raut et al.,
2015, wherein researchers reported increase in acidity with
increased level of mango pulp in yoghurt drink. Though the
increase in acidity was high in higher percentages of mango
based lassi but was not acceptable in sensory evaluation (Table
3). The mango powder and beetroot powder addition increased
the total solids which ultimately increased weight of product.
This caused the increment in specific gravity with augmented
levels of mango powder and beetroot powder. The viscosity of
prepared samples increased significantly due to increased
solids in prepared mango samples. Similarly, findings for
increased specific gravity, total solids and viscosity were
reported by [15] Singh et al., 2005 in carrot juice flavoured milk.
Table 2: Effect of mango and beetroot powder on physico-chemical properties of lassi
Mango powder lassi (in percent)
Control
T1
T2
T3
T4
Total Solids, (%)
11.52a±1.36
13.55b±0.97
15.86c±0.76
18.38d±0.07
19.77d±0.88
TSS, (0B)
9.80a±0.00
11.00b±0.00
13.00c±0.00
15.00d±0.00
17.00e±0.00
Acidity, (% lactic acid)
0.32a±0.00
0.38ab±0.02
0.41b±0.05
0.49c±0.05
0.54c±0.00
Specific Gravity
1.03a±0.001
1.04b±0.001
1.05c±0.001
1.06d±0.001
1.07e±0.001
Viscosity, (cp)
48a±0.00
318b±6.92
540c±27.71
1218d±96.24
1410e±126.04
Beetroot powder lassi, (in percent)
Control
P1
P2
P3
P4
Total Solids, (%)
11.52A±1.36
13.48B±0.27
14.65BC±0.22
14.72BC±0.17
15.15C±0.10
TSS,(0B)
9.80A±0.00
9.85A±0.05
10.20B±0.20
11.05C±0.05
11.30D±0.11
Acidity, (% lactic acid)
0.32A±0.00
0.36B±0.001
0.38B±0.002
0.41C±0.00
0.45D±0.00
Specific Gravity
1.031A±0.00
1.031A±0.01
1.032A±0.01
1.033B±0.01
1.034C±0.01
Viscosity, (cp)
48A±0.00
48A±0.00
54A±6.92
60B±0.00
72C±0.00
n=3, Values are Mean ± Standard Deviation, superscripts as a,b,c,d and e represents statistical significance of mango lassi with the
control whereas A, B,C,D and E for beetroot powder
Table 3: Effect of mango powder and beetroot powder on sensory scores of lassi
Mango Powder lassi, %
0
T1
T2
T3
T4
Colour
7.12±0.25
6.75±0.64
7.00±0.91
6.90±0.52
6.98±0.77
Mouthfeel
6.37±1.10
6.62±0.75
7.05±0.75
6.65±0.67
6.97±0.36
Richness
6.62±0.75
6.62±0.75
7.22±0.63
7.15±0.50
6.80±1.23
Sweetness
7.25±0.28
7.37±0.47
7.35±0.47
7.52±0.41
6.80±1.23
Flavour
7.00±0.40
7.12±0.25
7.10±0.20
6.90±0.66
6.67±1.16
Overall Acceptability
6.62±0.75
6.37±0.75
7.00±0.91
6.90±0.77
6.67±0.83
Beetroot Powder lassi, %
0
P1
P2
P3
P4
Colour
7.12±0.71
7.45±0.49
7.70±0.42
7.57±1.07
6.95±1.18
Mouthfeel
6.37±0.74
7.10±0.74
7.62±0.41
7.87±0.22
7.45±0.49
Richness
6.62±0.86
7.35±0.41
7.37±0.50
8.12±0.54
7.70±0.51
Sweetness
7.25±1.10
7.85±0.75
8.12±0.54
8.25±0.44
8.20±0.47
Flavour
7.00±1.09
7.35±1.09
7.12±0.75
8.50±0.83
7.20±0.35
Overall Acceptability
6.62±0.98
7.70±0.62
7.77±0.41
8.22±0.46
7.45±0.49
3.2 Effect of mango and beetroot powder on sensory scores
of lassi
The data for effect of mango powder and beetroot powder on
sensory scores of lassi has been presented in Table 3. The
sensory score values differed non-significantly for all the
attributes studied. The control sample had highest scores for
color and appearance and inclusion of vitamin A enriched
powder beyond 5 percent caused the decrease in sensory color
values. This may be due to disliking associated with dark color,
with more amounts of mango powder above some ranges in
lassi and consequent fetched lower scores. The scores for
mouthfeel was increased with augmented level and highest
scores was observed to T2 and P3. The richness scores were
observed to increased upto 5% level in mango lassi and 3% in
beetroot lassi beyond which it decreased and did not result in
acceptable product. High degree of acceptability in terms of
flavour was perceived by panellists in T1 and T2 mango lassi
whereas in case of beetroot lassi, maximum scores were
fetched by P3 with 3% beetroot powder. Higher concentration
more than this, led towards the decline in acceptability scores
due to increased viscosity and total solids. Also increased
amount of powders perhaps masked the flavour of the product
and did not fetched consumer acceptance. [14] Raut et al., 2015
studied that 6 percent mango pulp added yoghurt drink had
highest scores for flavour, body and texture, appearance and
color. Similarly, flavoured milk drink prepared with 10%
mango pulp had highest scores for overall acceptability (Bajwa
and Mittal, 2015) [13]. Maximum overall acceptability was
found in case of T2 and P3 fortified lassi. Similar findings were
observed for mango juice supplemented soy milk beverage
wherein different ratios were tried and combination of 50:50
ratio was found most acceptable (Sakhale et al., 2012) [16].

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However, higher ratios of beetroot have been reported like
yogurt incorporated with 8% beetroot powder scored higher
acceptance for all attributes investigated (Yadav et al., 2016)
[7].
3.3 Quality attributes of selective treatments
The proximate composition of lassi has been presented in Table
4. The five percent mango powder lassi had 16.02 percent total
solids whereas beetroot lassi had been found to contain 14.65%
compared to 11.82% in control and both the samples were
significantly different from control. The fat content of both the
fortified lassi was found similar and a minor variation can be
attributed to least amount of fat contributed by the powders.
The ash and protein content of both the samples was bit on
higher side but was not found statically significant compared
to control. However, sugar content of control and mango varied
significantly (p>0.05).
Table 4: Quality attributes of selective treatments
Parameters
Control
Mango powder lassi (5%)
Beetroot powder lassi (3%)
Moisture, %
88.17a A±1.36
83.97b±0.76
85.35B±0.17
Total solids, %
11.82a A±1.36
16.02b±0.12
14.65B±0.17
Fat, %
1.46±0.05
1.43±0.05
1.45±0.17
Protein, %
1.74±0.08
1.83±0.08
1.92±0.09
Ash, %
0.286±0.09
0.438±0.02
0.402±0.04
Total sugars, %
12.19a±0.16
13.03b±0.06
12.49±0.30
n=3, Values are Mean ± Standard Deviation, superscripts as a,b,c,d and e represents statistical significance
of mango lassi with the control whereas A, B,C,D and E for beetroot powder
4. Conclusion
Sensory evaluation revealed both the powders (mango and
beetroot) acceptable at 5 and 3 percent, respectively. Percent
moisture, total solids and total sugars were found significantly
different in both the samples when compared with control
(p>0.05). Thus, vitamin A fortified lassi can be prepared with
a great degree of acceptability from consumer point of view
along with its added benefits of enhanced nourishment and
wellness.
5. Acknowledgement:
Authors acknowledge the financial assistance provided by
Department of Science and Technology, GOI, under the project
grant of NRDMS for tribal community for its further
implementation.
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