Sensory and consumer evaluation of iron fortified rice

Rice being a staple food has the potential to be a good vehicle for fortification and as such can be a valuable vehicle for alleviating micronutrient deficiencies. However, for rice to be an effective delivery vehicle for iron, its sensory parameters should be similar to that of good quality non-iron fortified rice. In the present study, sensory properties were studied for six locally consumed rice products prepared with both iron fortified (35ppm Na2FeEDTA) and non-iron fortified rice. The best acceptable product according to statistical analysis was selected for consumer evaluation by a total of 100 randomly chosen respondents. There was no significant difference in overall acceptability between the normal and fortified rice and thus the iron fortified rice product was well accepted by the respondents.