Idli Case Study

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

Idli is a popular South Indian breakfast consumed widely across the globe such as in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore. It is a soft, spongy and white traditional rice cake eaten with chutney or curry. This traditional food contains high nutritional value such as protein, calories and Vitamin B Complex. It is a naturally fermented food, thus easy to digest and suitable for all age groups including children and elderly (Srilakshmi, 2003).

This food product can be further improved by adding more valuable ingredient to serve a specific group of people such as diabetics. Addition of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) to idli could potentially increase its nutritional value and make it a highly suitable healthy diet for diabetic population in Malaysia.

Ministry of Health projected that by year 2020, the prevalence of diabetes would be 15.3% which is equivalent to 3.2 million adults in Malaysia. 15% of Malaysian population is diabetic. In terms of percentage, Indians top the list with 35.7%, followed by Malays at 32% and

Black gram or Urd bean (Phaseolus mungo L.) is a pulse that belongs to the Leguminosae family. It is widely used in India, Pakistan, Iran, Greece, South-East Asia and East Africa. It is reported to contain 24.5-28.4% proteins, 1.1-1.4% fat, 2.8-3.7% ash and 51.5-63.3% carbohydrates (Bhattacharya, S. and Bhat, K.K., 1997). Pulse starch, like cereal and tuber starch, consists of amylose and amylopectin. The amylose content of the starches varies with the botanical source and is affected by the climatic conditions and soil type during growth (Inatsu et al., 1974; Morrison et al., 1984; Asaoka et al., 1985; Morrison and Azudin, 1987). Pulse starches are char¬acterized by high amylose content (24–65%). Singh et al., (2004) and Sathe et al., (1982) reported that the amylose content of black gram starches is in the range of