Dehulled small millets: The promising nutricereals for improving the nutrition of children

Abstract Good nutrition during a child's early years lays a strong foundation of health for the rest of its life. Yet in India, there is widespread prevalence of undernourishment among children below 5 years of age. Within the Indian context, small millets have great potential as a healthy food to address this challenge by the virtue of their nutritional qualities. However, there are many problems with the current processing technology for small millets, whereas the use of value‐added products was minimal. To address this, an assessment of existing small millet processing machinery was undertaken, and a double chamber centrifugal dehuller was developed, which had higher recovery of dehulled unpolished millets and met requirements at the village and enterprise levels. To demonstrate the health benefits of consuming value‐added small millets, a study of supplementation of multi‐millet health mix on the nutritional status of primary schoolchildren was conducted in Thondamuthur Block of Coimbatore District, India. Multi‐millet health mix was formulated from kodo millet, little millet, foxtail millet, finger millet, and wheat with the inclusion of pulses. It contained 65.45‐g carbohydrate, 11.46‐g protein, 4.94‐g fat, 4.94‐g fibre, 4.07‐mg iron, 112‐mg calcium, 268.52‐mg phosphorus, and 349 calories of energy per 100 g. The study indicated that there was a significant increase in height, weight, and haemoglobin level of the schoolchildren who regularly consumed the formulated multi‐millet health mix. The improved huller and value‐added food product developed can be feasible options for improving nutrition security and livelihoods through increased use of small millets.