Evaluation of Nutrients Content of
School Lunch Meal in Taipei
Chiang YM
1, Lin YJ
2, Tu JH
2, Yu YH
2, Yang SH
2*, Fang SM Amy
11
Food and Drug Administration Department of Health, Taipei City Government,
2
School of Nutrition and Health Sciences, Taipei Medical University, Taiwan
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the nutrients content of school lunch meal in Taipei in 2007. Study was conducted from March 2007 to December 2007. 146 lunch meal was evaluated from primary school, junior high school and high school. There were provided 788 ± 250, 825 ± 454, 874 ± 199 kcal for primary school children, junior high school and high school adolescents, and 29.2, 26.3, 31.7g protein (15.4, 13.0, 14.4% of energy). It could provide 1/3 to 2/5 of dietary reference intake (DRIs) nutrients. There was no significant difference because season’s change (no difference exist between spring and autumn), except high protein energy in spring. Most school lunch meal could provide adequate for children and adolescent in Taipei.
Purpose
According to the Department of Health, Executive Yuan, ROC, the lunch boxes which are given to elementary school, junior high school and senior high school should meet the nutrient and calorie needs that the one-third to two-fifth of dietary reference intakes（DRIs）. In this experiment, we have two purposes. One is to find out were all these lunch boxes met the DRIs and had the suitable proportion between carbohydrates, proteins fats and other nutrients. The other is to see if there had any differences between spring and autumn lunch boxes’nutrients.
Material and method
The study samples were provided by 110 school meal caterers who were randomly selected by the Food and Drug Administration Department of Health, Taipei City Government. All study samples were analyzed by the School of Nutrition and Health Sciences of Taipei Medical University using the 3-repetition technique. The analytical process started from sorting and weighing the ingredients of meals (weighing of fat content: 5g/ Ex for sautéd or stir-fried food items, 10 g/Ex for deep-fried food items) and the data gained were processed by dietary analysis program for nutrient composition. All ingredients were categorized into 6 food groups and calculated to display the result as mean value.Results
Conclusions
Most of the lunch boxes can provide adaptable calorie and nutrients to school kids, but the high oil and low vegetables portion still need to be concerned. Healthy and delicious lunch boxes can promote children’s health and prevent chronic disease.
