MSc

The study entitled 'Impact of nutrition education on mushroom
consumption' was carried out to generate awareness about the benefits of
mushroom consumption through popularisation of standardised recipes and to
assess the impact of imparted knowledge on consumption of the same.
The assessment of socio-economic characteristics, dietary variables
and knowledge on mushroom cultivation were done on the selected sample of
ISO respondents (50 members each from three resident associations namely
AIthara resident association at Vellayambalam, Chattambi Swami Nagar
resident association at Edappazhanji and Sastri Nagar resident association at
Karamana) In Thiruvananthapuram city inorder to impart education
programme for promoting mushroom consumption. After the conduct of
education programme; acceptance and preference scores of six demonstrated
mushroom recipes, gain in knowledge on the benefits of mushroom
consumption and extent of adoption after a gap of one month period were
done on sub sample (25 each from the three resident associations) who had
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participated in the education programmes.
The findings of the socio-economic survey done revealed that all the
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respondents were females and majority belonged to middle-aged population.
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Though most of them had sound education, many were unemployed and had
not participated in any nutrition education classes.
Majority of the families surveyed were Hindus belonging to forward
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caste. The families'. were. mainly nuclear type" having! a' htgIler percentage of

adult members and female members. Monthly income of most families
ranged between Rs. 3000 to 9000.
A vast majority of respondents were vegetarians without much health
problems while a few percentage had to reduce the intake of tubers, pulses,
fats, oils, sugar, and jaggery due to diseases like flatulence, hypertension,
coronary heart diseases and diabetes.
Though a higher concentration of respondents avoid their favourite
foods due to high cost, they all liked to try new cuisines.
Majority had no idea about consumptional values of mushrooms.
While 42 per cent had good opinion on mushroom consumption. Out of 150
respondents 48 percent had never tasted mushroom.
Highly preferred food groups among respondents were found to be
cereals and leafy vegetables while meat, fish, egg and mushrooms were least
preferred as majority were vegetarians. All other food groups were
moderately preferred by them.
Assessment of the respondent's mean food intake by weighment
method showed that the diets of respondents did not meet RDA for all foods
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except cereals, roots and tubers 'and sugar' and jaggery. Mean protein intake
assessed revealed that most respondents were deficient in protein than
suggested by ICMR (1999).
It was also observed from the present study that majority of
respondents did not know the technical know-how of mushroom cultivation.
Standardised recipes of six mushroom products like mushroom soup,
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mushroom omeletter-mushroornicutlet, mushroom H~~il~~ushroom pakora and



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mushroom pickle were demonstrated and acceptance and preference score for

these recipes were assessed by the respondents. In the case of acceptance

scores with regard to organoleptic qualities, mushroom pickle was scored

highly acceptable and mushroom omelette was the least accepted one.

Considering the preference of respondents, mushroom tikki was extremely

liked while mushroom omelette was scored minimum preference.

Two lecture classes on cultivational, nutritional and therapeutic values

of mushroom were conducted by using appropriate visual aids like poster, flip

chart, pamphlet and folder. Cooking demonstration on the preparation of

mushroom recipes and method demonstration on the technology of mushroom

cultivation were also carried out. Pre-test conducted on the respondents about

the use of mushroom showed that majority of respondents had moderate

knowledge about mushroom use. Assessment of post-knowledge score of

respondents after the education programme showed that hundred per cent of

respondents reached the maximum score which inturn indicates the

impact of education classes on the respondents.

Assessment of extent of adoption after one month of education programme

revealed that majority of respondents were consuming mushroom weekly. With

regard to the spawned bed supplied, majority considered it as highly motivating

and got medium yield (582.45 to 835.14 g of mushroom) from the bed. It is rather

surprising to note that about 93 per cent of respondents purchased spawn after

their first trial during the education programme and succeeded in growing

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mushroom. All the respondents showed great desire for buying spawned beds if
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available as it provides with less work and more yield .t~an self-made beds;
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thereby increasing the consumpton of mushrcorns. ._ ..