Nutritional composition and dietary intake of composite dishes traditionally consumed in Italy

A. Durazzo*, E. Camilli, S. Marconi, S. Lisciani, P. Gabrielli, L. Gambelli, A. Aguzzi, M. Lucarini, J. Kiefer, L. Marletta

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

17 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Italian food is very popular around the world, but the knowledge of the proximate composition of traditional composite dishes consumed in Italy is limited. This is mainly due to the large regional variety and complexity of such dishes. The present study provides new analytical data in order to fill this gap. Thirty dishes from different regions in Italy were selected including main courses, side dishes and desserts. For each dish, samples were prepared and then analyzed to determine the nutrient composition in terms of moisture, protein, fat, starch, sugars, dietary fibre and energy value. The nutrients varied between the dishes as can be expected.

Moreover, to assess their specific nutritional quality, in terms of adequacy or deficit, the nutrients of one portion of every dish were compared with the Dietary References Values (DRVs) for the Italian population.

Our results provide an important update of the national Food Composition Database (FCDB) of the CREA Research Centre for Food and Nutrition. The new data widen the nutritional knowledge of a variety of traditional Italian dishes and provide dietary information to health workers, the food industry and consumers.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)115-124
Number of pages10
JournalJournal of Food Composition and Analysis
Volume77
Early online date16 Jan 2019
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2019

Bibliographical note

This work was supported by the projects, EuroFIR and QUALIFU-SIAGRO. The authors thank Dr. Annalisa Lista for the linguistic revision and editing of this paper.

Keywords

  • Italian traditional recipes
  • Food analysis
  • Food composition
  • Dietary intake
  • Food composition database
  • FOOD COMPOSITION DATA
  • SCIENCE

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