EFFECTIVE UTILISATION OF FOOD RESOURCES UNIT SUMMARY

Effective Utilization of Food Resources

Unit 11: Food Budgeting

  • Introduction:

    • Budgeting is creating an expenditure plan to stay within financial limits.
    • Focus is on food budgeting to balance nutritive value, palatability, and costs.

  • Budgeting:

    • A budget is a written plan for using available money to meet family needs.
    • Budgeting involves planning how to spend income (e.g., Rs. 1500/- per month) to cover monthly needs.

  • Income and Expenditure: Cash income is weekly or monthly earnings, while ‘kind’ refers to home-grown produce (grains, pulses, etc.).

    • Income includes benefits like free housing or medical care.
    • Expenditure is money paid for goods and services.

  • Steps in Making a Budget:

    • List all necessary expenditure items.
    • Prioritize items, with essentials (food, clothing, shelter, health, education) at the top.
    • Estimate the cost of each item.
    • Estimate total available money.
    • Determine maximum affordable expenditure for each item.
    • Balance the budget to align expenditures with income

  • Food Expenditure:

    • Food is a fundamental necessity.
    • Food costs range from 50% of income in rich families to 90% in poor families.

Factors Influencing Food Budgeting

  • Income:

    • Lower-income families spend a higher percentage of their income on food.
    • Higher-income families spend more money on food overall but a lower percentage of their income.
    • Very low-income families may spend 80-90% of their income on food.

  • Example of Income Influence:

    • Low income: Rationed wheat, green gram dal, cheaper vegetables.
    • Moderate income: Good quality rice, red gram, spinach.
    • High income: Basmati rice, salad leaves, wider variety of fruits and vegetables.

  • Size of the Family:

    • Larger families spend more on food overall, but the expenditure per person decreases.
    • Costing for meals is done considering the size of the group.

  • Current Food Prices:

    • Market food prices directly affect the food budget.
    • Low prices mean less expenditure; high prices increase expenditure.
    • Food costs can displace other budget items.

  • Nearness to Food Supply:

    • Rural areas near food production have lower costs due to reduced transport and market expenses.
    • Towns with weekly markets on the outskirts have lower prices.
    • Wholesale markets offer lower prices for bulk purchases.
    • Auction markets require bidding for stocks.

  • Home Production and Processing:

    • Home production (vegetables, fruits) and processing (jams, sauces) reduce food expenditure and improve quality.

  • Family Interest in Food:

    • Families prioritizing food quality spend more on it.
    • Some may prioritize non-food items, risking undernourishment.

Economy in Food Budgeting

  • Knowledge of Nutrition:

    • Understand nutrient needs to plan effectively.
    • Avoid foods with little nutritional value.

  • Examples:

    • Grapes: Mostly water and sugar, nutritionally inferior to papayas and guavas.
    • Thin, watery soups: Not recommended for young children due to low nutrient density.

  • Financial Emergency Strategies:

    • Reduce food expenditure without sacrificing nutritional adequacy by choosing cheaper items from each food group.

  • Intelligent Buying:

    • Prices and quality: Compare markets for best prices and quality.
    • Bulk buying: Cheaper per unit but requires storage and extra attention.
    • Staggering purchases: Buy different items in bulk in different months.
    • Recommended for non-perishables: Cereals, pulses, sugar, oils.
    • Group buying: Share resources and labor to buy in bulk.
    • Seasonal buying: Foods are cheaper in season.
    • Preserve seasonal items: Make tomato puree, pickles, jams, etc.
    • Buying with a definite purpose: Buy cheaper varieties for specific uses (e.g., cheaper rice for idlis).
    • Awareness of weights and volumes: Check net weight of packaged foods.
    • Knowledge of grades, brands, and labels: Understand quality differences.
    • Preparing market lists: Plan purchases (annual, monthly, weekly, daily).
    • Avoid Unnecessary Buying:
    • impulsive and unplanned buying leads to wastage and unwanted eating habits.

  • Home Production and Processing:

    • Consider the cost and expertise needed.
    • Focus on items with high labor costs in production (jams, pickles).
    • Home production should align with family resources and objectives.

Preparation of Food Budgets

  • Short-Term (Monthly) Budget:

    • Plan expenditure within a proportion of monthly income.
    • Include monthly and weekly expenses.
    • Prepare purchase lists based on food groups, family size, and preferences.

  • Long-Term (Annual) Budget:

    • Forecast food expenditure for the year.
    • Include monthly costs, annual purchases (preserves), and festival expenses.
    • Adjust priorities based on income.

  • Short-term monthly budget includes the following steps: Estimate dietary requirements, convert requirements into food items, add spices and accessories, estimate costs, compare costs with budget, and adjust if needed. Table 11.2 represents daily food requirements of a sample family, which is split over cereal, roots and tubers, sugar/jaggery, fats and oils, milk, pulses, green leafy vegetables, other vegetables and fruits.

  • Long-term monthly budget takes into consideration the following: estimated monthly expenditure on food for 12 moths, other annual expenditure that are food related ( like that of squashes, pappads, pickles, squashes etc.), and anticipated unexpected instances or guests that require additional expenditure.

Sum Up

  • Food Budget includes planning expenditure, influences like family size and market types, and effective allocation of funds. Emphasizes smart buying, nutritional awareness, and home production for budget optimization.

Unit 12: Food Selection - I

Introduction

  • Effective food selection requires balancing cost, nutritional needs, and family preferences.
  • Knowledge of food types and their nutritional contributions is essential.
  • This unit discusses selecting energy-giving and body-building foods.

Objectives

  • Identify the types of energy-giving and body-building foods available.
  • List food items within each category.
  • Select foods based on quality and cost.
  • Understand the criteria for selecting these foods.

Selection of Energy-Giving Foods

  • Energy-rich food items include cereals, roots, tubers, fats, oils, sugar, and jaggery.

  • Selection of Cereals

    • Cereals: Chief means of subsistence; includes rice, wheat, jowar, maize, bajra, barley, and ragi.
    • Rice and wheat are fine cereals; bajra, ragi, and jowar are coarse cereals (millets).

  • Wheat:

    • Mainly used as whole wheat flour for chapaties, puries, and paranthas.
    • Indian chapati wheats absorb about two-thirds of their weight in water.

  • Wheat Proteins: The baking quality of wheat is attributed to gluten formation during dough preparation, enhancing elasticity and gas retention in baked products.

    • The protein content in wheat is approximately 10-13%, with 8-10% consisting of gluten.
      • Gliadins: Enhance dough extensibility.
      • Glutenins: Provide dough flexibility and strength.
      • Residue Proteins: Contribute to brittleness, forming crumbs.

  • Traditional and High-Yielding Varieties Traditional Indian wheat varieties, such as Sharbati and Bansi, are particularly suited to chapati-making. However, the introduction of high-yielding varieties and the growing popularity of baked wheat products (breads, cakes, biscuits) have necessitated different wheat qualities.

  • Rice:*

    • Classified as fine, medium, and coarse with regional preferences for size, shape, flavor, and cooking texture.
    • Fragrant, long-grained varieties like Basmati are used in North India.
    • Eastern India prefers parboiled rice; Kerala prefers strong boiled flavor.
    • Year-old rice cooks to a firm texture with separate grains.
    • Cooking qualities vary with water absorption and cooking temperature.
    • Half the rice grown in India is parboiled.

  • Parboiling process involves steeping paddy in water, then boiling and drying, improving nutrient value and milling yield as noted in both table 12.1A Major constituents of various forms of rice and 12.1B Retention of vitamins and minerals in various forms.

  • Millets:*

    • Coarse cereals include jowar, bajra, and ragi grown on poor soils.
    • Jowar is widely used in western India to make bhakri.
    • Bajra is grown mainly in Central and Western India.
    • Ragi is grown mainly in the south and is an excellent source of calcium.
    • Maize is mostly grown in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra.

  • Nutritional factors in the selection of cereals are their contribution as the best and cheapest sources of energy. Cereals make up about 75% of any cereal Starch and also contain significant amounts of proteins.

Selection of Roots and Tubers

  • Commonly used roots and tubers: potatoes, sweet potatoes, tapioca, yam, colocasia.
  • Rich in carbohydrates and provide calories; potatoes contain significant amounts of vitamin C.
  • Potato is the most versatile; Can be cooked in several ways.

Table 12.3 Yield of calories from Roots and Tubers as compared to Cereals in India

  • *Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Maize , Tapioca all have very high yield per acre as compared to rice, wheat, ragi or jowar.

Selection of Fats and Oils

  • Visible fats: ghee, butter, vegetable oils, and hydrogenated vegetable oils (vanaspati).
  • Fats liquid at room temperature are called oils; those solid are called fats.
  • Most cooking fats in India come from vegetable oilseeds (sesame, mustard, coconut).
  • Hydrogenation solidifies oils at room temperature.
  • Highlight 2 Explanaitions polyunsaturated fatty acis (PUFA) and the significance of Linoleic, linolenic and arachidonic in diet. Table 12.4 compares the PUFA content in various oil and fats.
  • The Colour and Flavor of the Fat: Various oils are put through processes by which their colour and flavour are removed. They are then called refined oils that have become very popular. Select fats and oils according to your needs and budget, but, always check for solid fat particles when buying from a market.

Selection of Sugar, Jaggery, and Other Sweetening Agents

  • Traditionally, jaggery, gur, or khandsari were used; fine white crystal sugar has been manufactured since the beginning of this century.
  • These act as sweetening agents.
  • Types available:
    • White crystalline sugar
    • Cube sugar
    • Icing sugar or castor sugar
    • Brown sugar
    • Liquid sugar
    • Glucose
    • Jaggery
    • Honey
    • Saccharin and related products

Selection of Body-Building Foods

  • Main contributors of protein, including pulses, milk, milk products, and flesh foods.
  • Food items are selected according to the liking and requirements of individual incomes.

Selection of Pulses

  • Pulses includes dals, grams, nuts and grams and dried seeds of leguminous, French beans and cowpeas.
    Nutritional value* They are a lot cheaper than dairy, meat, chicken and fish items, while having the same protein volume.
    Table 12.5 Commonly used pulses in Indian markets**

Selection of Foods

  • The various advantages and disadvantages in selection of milk and milk products are listed.

. Table 12.6 Proximate principles, minerals and vitamins in milk and milk products

Selection of Flesh Foods ( meat, poultry, Fish and other sea foods):

In general , this may not be the priority of selection for some food consumers and their respective advantages and disadvantges are listed.

Selection of Nuts

The advantages are detailed related to their availability and selection.
### Conclusion
The different varieties of foods based on various tastes have been identified and the importance of factors like suitability and economics are detailed .

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