| dc.description.abstract | Despite
major
interventions
and
program
to
deal
with
the
cases
of
vitamin
A
deficiencies
,
the
rates
remain
high,
at
14.7%
in
children
and
9%
in
women
with
the
conditions
related
to
the
same
affecting
lives
of
so
many
people
.
This
is
because
the
dietary
sources
of
beta-carotene
,
(a
precursor
for
vitamin
A)
like
carrots,
dark
green
vegetables
and
fruits
are
not
evenly
distributed
throughout
the
country
and
are
seasonal
.
Again,
considering
that
this
source
is
perishable
it
is
hard
to
reach
people
countrywide
in
good
condition
because
of
poor
infrastructure
and
storage
facilities
.
Methods
of
preserving
carrots
like
refrigeration
and
freezing
may
also
be
expensive
especially
to
people
of
low
economic
status
.
Animal
sources
of
vitamin
A
are
also
expensive
.
The
project
therefore
was
aiming
at
contributing
to
the
reduction
of
vitamin
A
deficiency
in
Kenya
.
This
was
to
be
achieved
through
reducing
carrots
water
activity
and
increasing
carrots
'
shelf
life
and
this
was
to
ensure
that
every
Kenyan
could
access
this
precious
source
of
vitamin
A
without
incurring
other
storage
costs
and
this
was
to
consequently
reduce
the
conditions
of
vitamin
A
deficiency
in
Kenya
like
night
blindness
and
xerophthalmia
among
others.
The
objective
of
this
project
was
to
assess
the
retention
of
beta
carotene
in
dried
carrots.
Carrots
were
dried
using
three
different
methods
and
beta
carotene
retained
from
each
method
determined
.
To
do
this
carrots
sample
were
obtained
from
the
market,
washed
,
grated
and
the
initial
beta-carotene
determined
.
Then
another
sample
was
taken,
and
part
of
this
sample
was
sun
dried
and
the
other
part
was
dried
in
an
oven
to
a
moisture
content
of
10%.
Data
analysis
Each
drying
method
had
5
samples
whose
results
were
averaged
to
get
the
mean
of
the
beta
carotene
retained.
Then
these
means
were
compared
using
ANOV
A
tables
to
establish
the
variability
among
the
three
methods. | en_US |
