Abstract
The current research was designed to assess the impact of storage on zinc retention and cooking & eating quality traits of zinc
fortified super basmati rice. Purposely, sodium alginate and starch based edible coatings were introduced to retain zinc sulfate
and zinc oxide, each @ 25 & 45 ppm within their matrix. Afterwards, the resultant coating formulations were applied uniformly
on rice kernels, packed in polythene bags and stored under ambient conditions for further analyses. Amongst treatments, Zn
concentration was ranging from 1.43±0.05 to 5.85±0.21 mg/100g. During storage, a slight decrement was recorded in zinc
retention from 4.33±0.15 mg/100g at initiation to 4.28±0.16 mg/100g at 90th day (termination). Furthermore, statistical
inferences showed significant influence of storage on cooking & eating characteristics with special reference to alkali spreading
factor and elongation, water absorption & volume expansion ratios. During storage, a declining trend was observed in amylose
content from 23.57±1.07 to 22.16±0.99 g/100g and alkali spreading factor from 4.24±0.16 to 3.38±0.19, whereas elongation,
water absorption & volume expansion ratios indicated increments from 1.91±0.05 to 2.39±0.07, 2.87±0.08 to 3.40±0.17 and
3.59±0.15 to 3.87±0.17, respectively. Resultantly, it is found that aged rice possess better eating and cooking characteristics
as compared to fresh counterparts, whereas impact of fortificants was non-significant. In the nutshell, Zn fortified edible coated
rice has proven as a novel approach to improve the zinc status of the communities.
