Abstract
Selenium, an ultra trace element with several health beneficial attributes, should be mainly derived from dietary sources. Since food processing is likely to alter the bioavailability of micronutrients, the influence of such processing such as germination and fermentation on selenium content and bioaccessibility, information on which is lacking, was examined in this study. Bioaccessibility of selenium from four cereal-based composite meals was also studied. Chickpea, green gram and finger millet were employed to study the effect of germination, and for effect of fermentation, batters used in preparation dosa, idli and dhokla were used. Soaking the grains in water as a part of germination and fermentation brought about a decrease in selenium content, while its bioaccessibility was not affected. The information on the loss of selenium during soaking and heat processing of the germinated grains is novel. Fermentation resulted in a further decrease in selenium content, the percent decrease ranging from 26 to 47 in the batters. Similar decreases were seen in the bioaccessible selenium content as a result of soaking and fermentation. Cooking of the fermented batters, however, significantly enhanced the bioaccessibility of selenium from dosa and dhokla by 44 and 71 %, respectively. Selenium content of the four meals ranged from 150 to 228.8 ng/g. Bioaccessible selenium was highest in the finger millet-based meal (32.8 ng/g), followed by sorghum, wheat and rice-based meals. The present investigation thus provides vital and novel information on selenium content and bioaccessibility from foods subjected to processing as is commonly practiced in Indian households.