For sensory evaluation, coated calcium fortified rice premix
samples were mixed with unfortified milled rice to the maximum
level i.e. a ratio of 6.8:100. This ratio may be even lower than 6.8
parts per 100parts of unfortified rice depending on the goal for
calcium content in the fortified rice. The reason of mixing 6.8 parts
of calcium fortified rice premix was to achieve the 150 mg of calcium
per 100g of calcium fortified rice as suggested by National
Institute of Nutrition (2011) for fortified extruded rice shaped grain.
Sensory characteristics of calcium fortified rice, evaluated in
cooked form are presented in Table 5. Consumers could not identified
the calcium fortified rice kernel from the cooked batches of
fortified rice due to similar appearance and colour of cooked fortified
and unfortified rice kernels that resulted in good sensory
scores for all the calcium fortified cooked rice. Different sensory
characteristics were found unaffected due to the type of
biopolymer but their concentration in the coating solution brought
a significant impact on the mean sensory scores for all the sensory
parameters (p < 0.05). During sensory evaluation, panellists reported
a slight bitter flavour of zein coated rice that indicated that
instead of higher calcium retention after washing in zein coated
rice, this type of coating may not be beneficial from marketability
thus profitability point of views. Sensory scores more than seven
for different sensory characteristics of all the coated calcium fortified
rice samples indicated the scope for large scale production of
biopolymer coated calcium fortified rice for health promotion.