SONIA PANNU, SANGEETA C. SINDHU*, BHAVNA SHARMA, RAJNI KHANNA AND VARSHA RANI
Department of Foods and Nutrition, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar-125 004 (Haryana), India
*(e-mail: chahalsangeeta@hau.ac.in; Mobile: 70158 88934)
(Received: December 28, 2025; Accepted: February 17, 2026)
ABSTRACT
Considering the increasing rates of anemia globally, and in view of increasing popularity of snack bars,
study was planned with the objective to develop iron fortified cereal-fruit bars and evaluate different
methods of iron fortification for in vitro iron accessibility and availability. Four types of bars with cereal-fruit nut combination were formulated using different fortification methods i.e. no fortification, bio-fortification, direct fortification and encapsulated fortification. Iron accessibility and availability were analyzed in terms of soluble and dialyzable iron. The developed bars were also analyzed for antioxidant potential and in vitro starch and protein digestibility. Iron fortification with encapsulation provided significantly higher (P<0.05) iron accessibility (78.23%) as well as availability (70.81%). The non fortified, bio fortified and direct fortified cereal-fruit bars, respectively, had 57.35, 57.39 and 76.69% accessibility. The iron availability, respectively, was 49.84, 49.85 and 66.62%. The developed bars presented a good nutritional and antioxidant profile also. The total phenolic content, total flavonoids content and DPPH radical scavenging activity in developed products ranged from 248.41 to 249.73 mg GAE/100 g, 124.63 to 126.30 mg RE/100g and 24.24 to 25.64 mg TE/100 g, respectively. The cereal fruit bar developed using biofortified wheat provided highest in vitro digestibility for protein (72.30%) and starch (52.56 mg maltose released/g). Anemia is fast becoming an unsolved global issue and a very pertinent national challenge for India. A nutrition filled iron fortified cereal fruit bar can be a readily acceptable approach to meet out their iron requirements. The present study explores different methods of fortification for better iron accessibility.
Key words: Health food, iron fortification, iron encapsulation, iron in vitro accessibility, in vitro digestibility