Evaluación de los factores de ganancia y/o pérdida de nutrientes por cocción en los alimentos preparados de la base de composición de alimentos locales de la ciudad de Cuenca

Abstract

The present research paper is a comparative study of nutrient values (ashes, proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, calcium, iron, potassium, magnesium, sodium, phosphorus, zinc) corresponding to cooked foods which were obtained through analysis with the values of food cooked nutrients which were obtained by means of calculating gain and / or loss factors (also called performance and retention factors) for nutrients. The methodology used for the evaluation of gain and / or loss factors was the one described by the U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) which states that the values of raw nutrients multiplied by their respective retention factors, result in the value of the nutrients of cooked foods without the need of analyzing them chemically. On the other hand, the analytical data were taken from the Food and Nutrition Laboratory, Department of Biosciences of the University of Cuenca (base of local food composition of the city of Cuenca). Other data were taken from the USDA food base. In total, the obtained data belonged to nineteen fresh foods that were cooked by liquid and greasy cooking. The results were statistically evaluated using Student t-tests of tail samples using a significance level of 5%. However, by means of the paired t-test, several statistically different values were found, being these ashes (P = 0.048), carbohydrates (P = 0.015), Calcium (P = 0.047), Magnesium (P = 0.016), Sodium = 0.0221) and Zinc (0.040). However, some factors calculated from analytical data can not be considered representative for the lack of information at the local level.