Estimation of losses of iodine during different cooking procedures.

Iodine is an essential micronutrient. The human requirement of iodine is 150 mcg/ day. About 90% of this comes from food while 10% from the water. The most commonly used method of prophylaxis against iodine deficiency is via fortification of salt with iodine. At the beneficiary level iodised salt containing 15ppm of iodine is supplied. However, very few studies have been conducted to assess the losses of iodine during cooking procedures. Hence, a systematic study was undertaken with the objective to assess the losses of iodine during different cooking procedures. Fifty recipes commonly cooked in Indian families constituted the sample size. It was found that the mean losses of iodine during different procedures used was 1) pressure cooking 22%, 2) boiling 37%, 3) shallow frying 27%, 4) deep frying 20%, 5) roasting 6%, 6) steaming 20%. The findings of the present study indicate that further studies are needed in this field.