Background: Under nutrition is a condition due to insufficient intake of energy and nutrients to meet an individual’s needs to maintain good health. Cereals and millets based supplementary foods represents good source of essential nutrients. Recently, millets are tagged as nutri-cereals and its health promoting benefits are attracting consumers worldwide. The current study was aimed to develop millet based ready-to-use composite mix and to evaluate its quality in terms of usage in various traditional foods and shelf life. Methods: RTU composite mix was developed using locally available cereals, millets, pulses and oilseeds. The nutrient composition of developed mix was analyzed. The traditional region specific foods namely Dose, roti and Mudde (Ragi ball) was prepared and subjected for sensory evaluation. Further mix was stored up to three months at room temperature and evaluated for microbial load, moisture, free fatty acid and peroxide value. Result: Protein, fat, carbohydrate and energy content of the mix were 18.5g, 9.56g, 58.21g and 393.24 kcal per 100 g respectively. Roti was best accepted (7.63), followed by mudde (7.50) and dose (7.03). Free Fatty Acid (FFA) was increased from 1.08 per cent to 1.56 per cent oleic acid, whereas peroxide value (PV) was increased from 7.46 to 9.35 mEq O2/ Kg of oil during storage. Total bacterial count (TBC) was increased from 4.5 X 102 to 8.1 X 103. The developed RTU mix which has nutritional potential needs to be popularized to address under nutrition and for overall good health of the society.

Background Women are vulnerable group for under nutrition, due to various physiological states in the life cycle. Especially in developing countries, despite the fact that women are predominantly the food producers for the nation, majority of them are anaemic, malnourished and have health problems due to insufficient nutrient intake. Hence, a study was undertaken to develop a energy dense food product from regionally available food ingredients and to test its efficacy on farm women in improving nutritional status. Methods A traditional food product ‘laddu’ was developed from combination of millet, cereal, legume, oil seeds, fats and sugars by application of simple processing techniques. The developed product was further subjected for nutritional evaluation and dietary intervention on farm women up to 120 days. Impact was studied on anthropometric measurements and nutrient intake of subjects. Results Findings indicated that, the product contained 516 kcal of energy per 100 gm. The protein, fat, total dietary fiber, iron and calcium content of the product was 9.80 g, 31.60 g, 3.90 g, 2.47 mg and 159.60 mg respectively. Majority of the subjects belonged to lower middle socio-economic group with marginal land holding. Mean body weight of rural farm women increased significantly from 40.67 ± 3.29 to 43.29 ± 4.51 kg and corresponding increase in BMI was also observed from 17.43 ± 0.49 to 18.75 ± 1.26 (kg/ m2). The initial protein, fat and energy intake in experimental group was 31.99 ± 3.01 g, 23.46 ± 4.52 g and 1288 kcal respectively which was increased significantly for all the nutrients after intervention. Conclusion In the present scenario, providing nutrition security through development and popularization of nutri- dense food products from regionally available food ingredients among the vulnerable sections of the society is of vital importance.