Initially good quality potatoes were taken, washed, peeled, pre treated with (3% Nacl with 0.05% ascorbic acids) sliced, blanched, cooled and once again treated with 0.02% potassium meta bisulphate, drain the treated slices, dry in sun and made into flour. The other ingredients like soya flour, ragi flour, and wheat flour were procured from the local market. Three varieties of weaning biscuits were developed using the proportion of Potato flour (Variety I) Wheat flour (Variety II) Ragi flour (Variety III) with soya flour in the ratio of 80:30 with the addition of sugar and fat. All the developed three varieties of biscuits were evaluated for their acceptability by a panel of 10 judges from Department of Food Science, Periyar University, Salem. All the judges were asked to score the products for appearance, colour, flavor, taste, texture and over all acceptability using a score of a nine point hedonic scale [5]. The developed biscuits were analyzed for its nutritive value with reference to calories, protein, fat, carbohydrates, crude fiber and total ash using the standard procedures [6].
Three primary schools situated in Omalur, Salem district, Tamilnadu, India were selected by purposive sampling method for the sample selection. A total of 150 preschool children 61 from primary school I, 46 from primary school II, 43 from primary school III, belonged to the age group of 2 - 3 were selected for the initial survey. After preliminary survey, 80 preschool children were identified as malnourished (Grade II) based on the height and weight measurement. Assessment of mean nutrient intake using food weighment survey of selected malnourished children was found to be low as energy-710 ± 23.45 K.cal, protein-10 ± 0.92 g and fat-8 ± 1.20 compared to the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) and this calorie gap in their dietaries was estimated as 320 k.cal. These 80 preschool children are admitted for the experimental study.
Identified Eighty Grade II malnourished primary school children were divided into four groups with twenty subjects in each group and given the following weaning biscuits.
Group I: 20 children kept as control group they are on home diet only.
Group II: 20 children supplemented with Potato flour biscuits.
Group III: 20 children supplemented with Wheat biscuits.
Group IV: 20 children supplemented with Ragi biscuits.
Each supplemented groups received six biscuits comprising the weight of 60 grams daily. Three biscuits were given in the mid morning and three biscuits in the evening. This whole research procedure was compatible with Helsinki Declaration and written consent was received from all the participants.
Before starting the feeding trail one local school teacher from each school were selected to distribute and monitor the feeding for the selected children of their area. They were initially briefed about the importance of the study. The feeding trail was conducted for a period of 3 months and during the entire study period, all the experimental and control groups were supervised by the research staff. The study was approved by the Institutional Ethical Committee (IEC) members.
Background details such as age, sex, type of family, family size, birth order, level of income per month were elicited by interviewing the parents of the selected children using an interview schedule.
Anthropometric measurements like height and weight, clinical picture were studied before and after supplementation with the help of a physician. Apart from above data certain perceptual development that measures cognition was assessed before and after the supplementation period for the selected children using specially designed criteria [7].
The data was complied and analyzed by using statistical methods. Descriptive statistics ANOVA and paired comparison test are computed using a statistical software SPSS version 15.0 Duncan's multiple range tests is applied to determine the significant differences between the supplemented biscuits.