Similar to the effect of iron, carrot generally had a significant positive effect on the bioaccessibility of zinc from all the food grains examined, but of a lesser magnitude (Table 1). In the case of rice, this effect was evident only in the cooked grain, the percent increases in zinc bioaccessibilty being 40 and 36 at the two levels of carrot examined. Zinc bioaccessibility was enhanced by 93.9% and 88.2% in raw and 31.2% and 29.2% in cooked sorghum, respectively. In green gram, zinc bioaccessibility increased by 17.4% and 16.7% in raw whilst in cooked green gram, the percent increases were 33.7 and 29.6. Carrot also increased zinc bioaccessibility from chickpea, the percent increase being 16.2 and 17.9 at 2.5 and 5 g, respectively, in the raw grain, whilst this positive effect was evident in the cooked grain only at the higher level of carrot (13.8% increase). Cooking itself reduced the bioaccessibility of zinc from rice, sorghum and green gram, and this negative effect of cooking was partially countered by the addition of the β-carotene provider, namely, carrot. As in the case of iron bioaccessibility, the magnitude of the positive effect of carrot was generally similar at both the levels tested.