Selected traditional foods from Bulgaria in the frame of BaSeFood project

Alexieva, I.; Albuquerque, T.G.; Sanches-Silva, A.; Finglas, P.; Vasilopoulo, E.; Trichopoulou, A.; D’Antuono, L.F.; Costa, H.S.

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.18/1294

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Introduction. Bulgaria is located in Southeast Europe, in the northeast part of the Balkan Peninsula. Its location on the transition line between two climate zones influences the climate, soils, vegetation and animal species. Bulgarian cuisine is exceptionally diverse and delicious, consisting of various salads, breadstuffs, stews, and other local foods. Many of the dishes are prepared according to traditional recipes and have been passed from generation to generation over the centuries. This study was carried out within BaSeFood project (Sustainable Exploitation of Bioactive Components Black Sea Area traditional foods) and the aim was to determine the nutritional composition of six traditional foods from Bulgaria. Material and methods. Six traditional foods: baked layers of pastry stuffed with pumpkin, rodopian dried bean, rose jam, halva, mursal tea and millet ale were selected and the nutritional composition was determined. The following components: moisture, ash, total nitrogen (for protein), total fat, individual fatty acids, starch, total sugars and dietary fibre were quantified for each food. Results. Our results show that mursal tea, millet ale and rodopian dried beans were the analysed traditional foods with the lowest energy content due to the high water content (>81%). Total protein content varied between 0.344  0.01 g/100 g and 11.0  0.10 g/100 g for rose jam and halva, respectively. Halva was the selected traditional food with the highest amount of total fat (30.1 ± 0.74 g/100 g), from which the major fatty acids were unsaturated, since it is made with sunflower seeds. All results are given per 100 g of edible portion. Conclusions. New data on nutritional composition of Bulgarian traditional foods will enhance the knowledge base on traditional foods which is necessary for the development of exploitation plans and will be useful for their promotion.