Report on Analytical characterization of selected traditional foods complete - M2.4

This document describes the status of the analyses to determine the nutritional composition of the selected traditional foods from Black Sea Area countries (BSAC), which was performed by INSA (P04) and IFR (P02). INSA received the thirty-three selected traditional food samples from BSAC between May 2010 and July 2011. The samples were identified with the sample codes given previously in the guidelines (M2.1), homogenized, stabilized if necessary, divided in appropriate quantities and frozen or kept refrigerated until analysis (Table 1). INSA sent twenty-one traditional food samples on February 2011 and nine samples on June 2011 to IFR for total folate determination. The following components have been determined in the samples: water, ash, total nitrogen (for protein), total fat and individual fatty acids (SFA/MUFA/PUFA), total sugars, starch, total dietary fibre, minerals and trace/elements (Na, Fe, Zn and Se), vitamins A, E, C, B2 and total folate. The analytical methods used for the nutritional composition are listed in Table 2. All the analyses are complete except for cholesterol content which are being performed (Tables 3 and 4). INSA has carried out other analyses, which were not included in the DoW, such as determination of K, Ca, Mg, Cu, P and Mn, in the thirty-three selected traditional foods. This document also contains some information on the status of bioactive compounds determination. UNIBO has received samples from all the selected traditional foods and evaluated the total polyphenol content of each food (Table 5).The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n.º 227118