Abstract:
Calcium is the most abundant mineral in little body which is essentially required for building and maintaining strong skeletal system and to maintain metabolic processes. Body calcium requirement increase dramatically with age and especially during the pregnancy and lactation. The clinical implications of calcium deficiency include rickets, poor bone mass accrual, abnormal formal programming during pregnancy, postmenopausal osteoporosis and osteoporosis in elderly. Women are more susceptible to calcium deficiency than male as the body calcium deposits readily deplete during pregnancy and lactating period. Most of the governments and health organizations in the world initiate different approaches to increase the calcium intake during pregnancy and lactation. In Sri Lanka, government provides calcium supplements to pregnant women in the born of drug for daily administration. Though the supplements are provided continuously, the problem is still remaining. Recent in medical researches indicate that mere than 3 5% Sri Lankan people are suffering from osteoporosis. This is mainly due to poor dietary intake and low bioavailability of supplemented calcium then the natural soulces of calcium. Milk is an excellent source of vitamins, minerals and panicularly calcium. It was long been recognized for its important role in the bone health. Milk contains about 1 17 mg of calcium in 100 g of milk Walstra ct at., 2006).Calcium in milk is more easily absorbed by the intestine ll1an the calciui i Iron› the vegetables and cereals, thus dairy products are considered as excellence sources of dietary calcium which can be further fortified with calcium source to achieve higher calcium intake per saving (Singh c/ n'/, 2006). Though flue Lortificat ion is possible, development o£ calcium› fortified products with› good sensory and appealing properties is one of the chat lenges faced by the Jaii y ii1d‹islry. Hei1ce, this research was conducted to select the best source of calcium for fortification o£ i+ i Ik nit I higher sensory attl ibutes, good solubility and low cost of production.
