Stability of added iodine in different Indian cooking processes

Universal salt iodisation programme is recognised as an economical, convenient and effective means of preventing iodine deficiency disorders (IDD). However, information on the retention of iodine during cooking is scant. Therefore this study was undertaken to investigate the retention of iodine from iodised salt when added to the most commonly used Indian recipes. The Mean ± SD retention of iodine in 140 of the most common Indian recipes was 60 ± 21%. The frequency distribution showed low retention (<20%) of iodine in 5.7% of the recipes, moderate retention (20–40%) in 15.7% while very high retention (>80%) was observed in 20%. Significant correlation (r = −0.194, P < 0.05) was observed between iodine retention and the time of iodised salt addition to the recipe. The retention of iodine was observed to be a minimum in shallow frying with oil (52 ± 23%) and a maximum in pressure cooking (82.2 ± 6.2%). The data generated in this study would usefully augment the negligible information regarding iodine retention in recipes.