Food consumption pattern and dietary intake of women in food enterprise

A study was conducted to elicit the information on food consumption pattern and dietary intake of 120 women entrepreneurs in food enterprise of Tumkur (n=60) and Bangalore Urban (n=60) districts of Karnataka, India. Entrepreneurs were categorized as small, medium and large size enterprise based on the capital investment. The results revealed that, majority of entrepreneurs of all the categories in both the districts were in the habit of consuming three meals per day. More than 78.3 and 55.5 per cent were vegetarians and 21.7 and 45 per cent were non-vegetarians in Tumkur and Bangalore district, respectively. In Tumkur district, across all categories of enterprises, consumption of cereal exceeded the RDA. The mean adequacy of pulses (75.3%), green leafy vegetables (81.4%), other vegetables (87.5%), fruits (62.7%), sugar and jaggery (99.3%), fats and oils (97.2%) was recorded and least per cent was observed in fish and flesh foods (45.8%) when compared to RDA. In Bangalore district, mean adequacy of cereal exceeded the RDA in large and medium categories except small size entrepreneurs (99.5%). Consumption of other food groups was found to be more than 50 per cent of RDA across all categories of enterprise. On the whole, consumption of milk and fish and flesh foods by the women entrepreneurs was less than 50 per cent of RDA levels in both the districts. However in all categories of food consumption, marginal difference was observed and mean adequacy were less than RDA. Hence it can be concluded that nutrition education should be made use to address the issues of nutrient deficiencies and work capacity by educating women entrepreneur on importance of food and nutrition, good health and productive life.