Efficacy of Nutrition Education in Improving Food Processing and Cooking Practices among Farm Women

Faulty food processing and cooking practices, such as excessive boiling, peeling, and high-heat frying, and discarding whey in paneer making, often lead to significant nutrient losses, particularly of water-soluble vitamins B and C and minerals. Nutrition education can empower individuals to adopt healthier techniques like steaming, minimal-water cooking, and using whey in soups, thereby retaining essential vitamins and minerals. This study was conducted to assess the efficacy of nutrition education in improving household food processing and cooking practices among 100 rural households in the villages of Nacholi, Tajupur, Chirsi, Mohna, and Bahadurpur in Faridabad. The current cooking practices of the respondent indicated that 38.0 per cent of them do not wash pulses before cooking while 22.0 of them wash it only if found contaminated, 19.0 percent of them usually wash vegetables after peeling and cutting, 80.0 per cent usually throw whey while making paneer. A common practice of over cooking of vegetables in excessive water and throwing excessive water while cooking rice was prevalent. Results indicated that the average knowledge score of women regarding diversified products of pearl millet, sorghum, and maize was 2.28, which improved significantly to 6.15 after having nutrition education. Likewise, the average knowledge score on steamed, fermented, and germinated products before training ranged between 0.90 to 1.50, which improved significantly and ranged between 2.75 to 3.70 after their exposure to nutrition education. The benefits of utilizing whey, preserving fruits and vegetables, blanching, and unsieved flour resulted in improved gains in knowledge scores and those were improved by 2.70, 2.64, 3.17, and 2.27, respectively. Consequently, a significant improvement in knowledge was observed among women after imparting nutrition education; the gain in knowledge ranged between 40.6 to 71.2 percent, with an overall increase of 59.1 percent.