Egg shell powder is used as a calcium source in a nutritional supplement known as "multimistura" that has been distributed in Brazil by non-governmental organizations. The objectives of this research were to fortify traditional, low cost and easy to prepare dishes with egg shell powder and to estimate the nutritional contribution of each portion to the calcium daily intake. Ten common dishes were prepared and fortified with egg shell powder (with 37.4% of calcium) at the rate of 1g to 100 g of cereal or flour used in the processing foods. The fortified foods showed a range of calcium concentrations between 111.5 mg and 506.4 mg.100 g -1, which were significantly higher than the contents of the original formulations without fortification. Mean portions of fortified dishes provide about 14 to 32% of the nutritional calcium references for adults. It was concluded that traditional dishes fortified with egg shell powder could contribute significantly to the adequate calcium intake and to prevent calcium deficiency, mainly osteoporosis, in individuals of different age groups and social levels.
dietary calcium; egg shell; fortified food; osteoporosis
