Worksite canteens generally are characterized by obesogenic environments, which offer access to energy-dense foods and sugar-sweetened beverages rather than nutrient-rich food. This study assessed the nutritional quality of hot lunches offered in National Health Service (NHS) hospital staff canteens: 35 side dishes and 112 meals were purchased from 8 NHS hospital staff canteens. The meals were analyzed for portion size, energy, protein, total fat, saturated fatty acids (SFAs), salt, and the sodium to potassium ratio. The vegetarian and meat-based lunch meals served in the hospital staff canteens tended to be high in energy, total fat, saturated fatty acids, and salt: 40%, 59% and 67% of meat meals and 34%, 43%, and 80% of vegetarian meals were assigned the red traffic light label for total fat, salt, and SFAs per portion, respectively. Similar types of meals, but served in different hospitals, varied considerably in their nutritional quality. The consumption of some lunch meals could provide more than 50% of recommended total fat, SFAs, and salt for both men and women and daily energy for women. The majority of analyzed lunch meals were characterized by an unfavorable nutrient profile, and regular consumption of such meals may increase the risk of noncommunicable diseases.
Alpha tocopherol is recognized as inhibitor of lipid oxidation in biological systems and the intake of this vitamin is relevant to human health .Catering food products investigated in the current study have been chosen from two food groups: fish based food products and meat based food products.A number of ten food samples were investigated. Alpha tocopherol was analysed using a Shimadzu VP Series liquid chromatograph equipped with a fluorescence detector FR -10 AXL with excitation wavelength of 290 nm and emission wavelength of 325 nm. Data analysis suggest significant loss of tocopherol in meat and fish based food product as compared to the content found in thermal non-treated preparations. Thus, in fish preparation the cook-serve processing by conventional thermal treatment diminishes the tocopherol content by 58%; in case of microwave thermal treatment this loss is 64.5 %. It was found that the microwave thermal treatment generated lower tocopherol content by 10% versus the conventional thermal treatment. In case of thermally non-treated meat preparations the tocopherol content is 0.82 mg/100g product, greater than in fish preparations, but the loss registered by conventional thermal treatment and by microwave thermal treatment is approximately 21,95%, and 25,6%, respectively. In the case of meat preparations, the microwave thermal treatment generates a loss of tocopherol content greater by 16,6 % as compared to the conventional thermal treatment.
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