On the Relevance of Developing New Collections of Recipes and Culinary Products for Healthy Eating of Children

Abstract

Introduction: Healthy nutrition is one of the major components of public health and wellbeing. The structure of nutrition shall satisfy physiological needs of children in macronutrients, vitamins and minerals, and shall contribute to the development of healthy nutrition skills, proper eating habits and behavior. New requirements for school catering have come into force recently. They envisage changes demanding a simultaneous update of technological documentation for activities of catering operators and canteens. Objective: Improvement of technological documentation in terms of the development of collections of recipes and culinary products as well as typical menus for healthy feeding of children in compliance with the updated requirements. Materials and methods: The study of disease incidence, intensity of physical activity, and anthropometric parameters of children studying in the Volga Federal District cadet corps was carried out for 2018–2021. Statistical data analysis was performed using standard methods in Statistica 10.0 and Microsoft Excel software packages. The “Nutrition” programming tool was used to develop recipe books and menus. Results: Assessment of the overall morbidity revealed its negative trend mainly attributed to unhealthy diet and poor eating habits of children. The study of physical activity of the cadets showed high and above optimal levels in the course of training. According to the results of correlation and regression analysis, changes in anthropometric parameters of cadets compared to schoolchildren were attributed to malnutrition inadequate for energy and biological parameters of nutritional value, especially in the age groups of 14–17 years. Conclusions: Our findings confirmed the relevance of developing technological documentation in terms of collections of recipes and culinary products and standard menus for organization of healthy feeding of children in compliance with modern requirements. The recipes of the developed collection contain information on the weight per serving, energy value, the content of micro- and macronutrients.