Standardization and Proximate Contents of Selected Commonly Consumed Nigerian Soups and Dishes

Abstract

Background: The change in the dietary pattern of Nigerians to a more western diet has been implicated in adverse health outcomes increassing in the prevalence of undernutrition and chronic diseases. Availability of recent data on recipe and nutrient content of foods as consumed is crucial in disease management and dietary intake studies.
Objective: This study standardized and determined proximate contents of selected commonly consumed Nigerian soups and dishes. 
Materials and methods: A cross-sectional and convergent parallel design was adopted. Recipe of soups and dishes of households were obtained from 800 purposively selected housewives in Lagos, Ogun, Oyo and Osun States, Nigeria using semi-structured questionnaire and 4 focus-group discussion sessions. Recipes were standardized, soup and dish samples were prepared and analyzed for proximate contents using standard methods of AOAC. Data were analyzed using median, mean and standard deviation using Microsoft excel office 2019 software.
Results: Moisture content of the soups and dishes ranged from 40.54–85.49 g/100g, carbohydrate content ranged from 0.74–32.53 g/100g, protein content ranged from 4.49–26.85 g/100g, fat content ranged from 6.03–21.81 g/100g, crude fibre content ranged from 0.24–2.38 g/100g and ash content ranged from 0.24–3.00 g/100g.
Conclusion:Soups had higher protein, fat and crude fibre contents while dishes had higher carbohydrate contents. Habitual consumption of most of these soups and dishes may promote healthy dietary lifestyle and reduce diet-related disease risk.