Consumption of Traditional Spices among Urban Households of Rajasthan

Abstract

The country India is famous as the “Home of Spices”. A spice is an integral component of any cuisine and it performs numerous functions like adding taste, colour and flavour to food. Apart from these, they have been proved to improve digestion, reduce cholesterol, improve blood glucose levels, prevent chronic diseases, and have anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antioxidant, antimutagen and anticancer properties. Consumers today are looking for natural cures and ways of improving health, thus spices are gaining medicinal importance.

Spices are made able to consume after post-harvest processing, commercially and at domestic level. With a perceptible transition in the lifestyle of the Indian population, the commercial spice processing is taking steps forward towards producing convenient and safe products for the consumers. However, the processing of spices in reference to the consumption practices at the ground level need to be assessed for material information which is essential for the processing industries as well.

Thus, the present study was conducted to assess the consumption pattern of spices and spice processing followed in the urban households of Rajasthan. The sample comprised of 200 urban women who were interested in participation and could provide crisp and authentic information. A questionnaire was prepared for collection of the data and the respondents were contacted personally in Udaipur City. The results revealed practices of people with respect to the form of consumption of individual spice and spice mixes. It was seen that majority of respondents were consuming spices as whole and with simple processing i.e. in ground form. It was also observed that although most of the people purchased branded spice mixes from market, yet about 1/4th of the families preferred to process the spices and prepare the mixes at home.