Development and evaluation of calcium fortified date bars from indigenous sources

Calcium (Ca+) is one of the most important minerals which is required by human body to sustain and construct strong teeth and bones. Also, calcium plays a vital role in proper working of the cardiac nerves, regulation of blood pressure and stretching and relaxing of muscles. The deficiency of calcium could lead to week teeth and bones and many conditions like osteoporosis and osteopenia. The purpose of the study was to develop calcium fortified bars. Chicken eggshell powder and calcium carbonate were used as main source of calcium. All the necessary ingredients were procured from local market Faisalabad. Calcium fortified bars were prepared with different percentage of calcium with respect to DRI value (50 %, 60 % and 75 %). All the raw material was analyzed for proximate composition following standard methods of AOAC. The bars were evaluated for proximate composition and mineral profile following the standard methods of AOAC (2006). It was observed that chicken egg-shell powder is an excellent source of various minerals including Nitrogen (0.542 ± 0.01), Calcium (37.7 ± 0.12), Magnesium (0.29 ± 0.01), Phosphorus (0.202 ± 0.00), Potassium (0.077 ± 0.00), Sodium (0.13 ± 0.00) and Carbonate (36.8 ± 0.02).All the bars were found to be shelf stable. It was concluded in current study that egg shell powder could be used as an alternate of calcium carbonate for development of calcium fortified bars.