A study on the awareness of adolescent girls and old age women on the use of iodized salt in cooked food for human consumption

The present study has been carried out on 200 adolescent girls and old age women above 50 years of Muzaffarpur and East Champaran district of Bihar to study the use of iodized salt in cooked food prepared for human consumption. Even now, 10.50 percent respondents cook food for long time at low temperature without having the understanding that cooking even at low temperature for long time will result into loss of many vital nutrients especially some of vitamins and volatile compounds. Though only iodized salt is available in the market, 64 per cent respondents were not having any idea whether the salt is iodized or not. The situation was little better among girl respondents due to advertisement on TV and knowledge receiving in school. The case of using salt during cooking and reheating of food before consumption was high. It is recommended to have mass awareness campaign for the best practices of cooking methods and iodized salt.