Staple food consumption influencing economic, social, cultural, nutritional, and public health aspects in Brazil.

In 2016 the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) launched an initiative (movement) entitled 'Rice and Beans: the Brazilian Food' aiming to demonstrate the nutritional importance of diets based on the products rice and beans via the dissemination of customized information about their nutritional and functional aspects. This initiative was released because, in the last decades, the food industry has offered several products and services that reshaped the eating patterns of the population. The substitution of culinary preparations based on fresh or raw grains/cereals of almost ready or semi-ready foods was the consequence of this behaviour of food industries. In Brazil, this change affected the consumption of rice and beans, the staple foods of the population, with negative consequences in economic, social, cultural, nutritional, and public health aspects. This situation is not restricted to Brazil. The World Health Organization recommends governments to guide populations towards more healthy food choices. The movement 'Rice and Beans: the Brazilian Food' was planned in three stages: 1) consumption diagnostics; 2) evaluation of the data from the first stage by a multidisciplinary team; and 3) disclosure to the population critical points identified in the surveys. The data obtained by diagnosis was carried out with consumers in the states of Goias and Mato Grosso. The diagnosis identified aspects related to changes in eating habits that affect the consumption of rice and beans. However, the traditional food remains, regardless of age and family income. On the other hand, it was detected the need to better inform the population with scientific arguments about the benefits of consumption of rice and beans, giving special attention to sick people, such as obesity, arterial hypertension, diabetes, high levels of triglycerides and cholesterol. The results corroborate and subsidize the main proposal of movement that according to it agents in the production chains must promote the dissemination of information on nutritional and functional characteristics of rice and beans to different profiles of Brazilian consumers, encouraging them to prefer more healthy diets. Steps one and two of this project were performed as planned. However, to perform step three, it still is necessary the support of food chain members to overcome some obstacles related to funding and dissemination of information to consumers.Virtual conference