DEVARAJA, H.C.KATIYAR, ANJAL2023-11-022023-11-022021https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810200137Vitamin B12 (B12) plays an important role in human body in building healthy neural system, formation of red blood corpuscles, synthesis of DNA and normal brain function. B12 deficiency causes megaloblastic anaemia, neuropathy and increased risk of heart attack. Natural occurrence of B12 is restricted to foods of animal origin Viz. meat, fish and eggs. Indian population, with largely vegetarian food habit, is more prone to harbour deficiency of B12. Hence, affordable and sustainable dietary sources of B12 are needed to be developed to ensure sufficient intake of B12. Ready to use foods and premixes are widely accepted by the population of all age groups and they could be most ideal vehicle to assist in nutritional rehabilitation of essential nutrients. The B12 production capacity of P. freudenreichii depends on the availability of the B12 lower ligand (5,6-dimethylbenzimidazole, DMBI). Sorghum, being largely produced cereal next to wheat and rice, contains good amount of riboflavin and niacin, which acts as precursor for DMBI production. P. freudenreichii isolated from Emmental cheese was inoculated into sorghum and whey based medium and incubated under anaerobic/anaerobic conditions. The optimization of fermentation medium was done using D-optimal factorial design. The fermentation medium composed of higher levels of sorghum and whey powder recorded highest B12 content of 40.15mg/100 g. The optimization of vitamin B12 rich composite nutrimix was carried out using D-optimal mixture design technique, using Fermented mass (50-70%), wheat malt (20-30%) and sugar (10-20%) as components and evaluated for sensory and reconstitution properties. The formulation with 50.32% fermented mass, 29.68% wheat malt and 20% sugar produced sensorially superior product with good reconstitution properties. The ready to reconstitute nutrimix developed recorded Vitamin B12 content of 18mg/100g, 13.5% protein and 2.19% fat.EnglishThesis