PROXIMATE COMPOSITION OF PLANT ORIGIN TRADITIONAL FOODS FROM BLACK SEA AREA COUNTRIES T. G. Albuquerque 1 , H. S. Costa 1 , A. Sanches-Silva 1 , T. Fontes 1 , C. Mota 1 , M. Santos 1 , E. Vasilopoulou 2 , A. Trichopoulou 2,3 , F. D’Antuono 4 , I. Alexieva 5 , K. Fedosova 6 , D. Karpenko 7 , Z. Kilasonia 8 , B. Kocaoglu 9 , N. Koval 10 , A. L. Stroia 11 , P. Finglas 12 The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n.º 227118. 1 Food and Nutrition Department, National Institute of Health Dr. Ricardo Jorge, I.P., Av. Padre Cruz, 1649-016 Lisbon, Portugal; 2 Deptartment of Hygiene, Epidemiology & Medical Statistics, Medical School, University of Athens, Greece; 3 Hellenic Health Foundation, Athens, Greece; 4 Campus of Food Science, Cesena, University of Bologna, Italy; 5 University of Food Technologies, Plovdiv, Bulgaria; 6 Department of Nutrition, Odessa National Academy of Food Technologies, Odessa, Ukraine; 7 State Educational Institution of the High Professional Education “Moscow State University of Food Productions”, Russian Federation ; 8 Elkana, Biological Farming Association, Tbilisi, Georgia; 9 T C Yeditepe University, Istanbul, Turkey; 10 UzhNU (Uzhhorod National University), Uzhhorod, Ukraine; 11 The Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania; 12 Institute of Food Research, Norwich Research Park, Colney, Norwich, NR47UA, United Kingdom Within the frame of the European Project BaSeFood (Sustainable Exploitation of Bioactive Components Black Sea Area traditional foods), thirty-three traditional foods from six Black Sea Area Countries (Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russian Federation, Turkey and Ukraine) were selected and prepared according to the traditional recipe, ingredients and traditional preparation methods [1]. One of the aims is to promote and preserve traditional foods and to produce new and reliable data of the overall nutritional composition. The list of components for the nutritional composition of each traditional food were prioritised on the basis of (1) the importance in national food composition data; (2) the most relevant components to be analysed for each composite food and (3) their importance in relation to the increased risk of diet ‐related chronic diseases. The prioritised list of components is: moisture, ash, total nitrogen (for protein), total fat, saturated fatty acids (SFA), monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA), polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), cholesterol, total starch, total sugars, total dietary fibre, minerals and trace elements (Na, Fe, Zn, Se), and vitamins A, E, C and B 2 . In this work, the proximate composition of 20 traditional foods is presented. Cereals and cereal based foods Oilseeds or oilseed products Herbs, spices and aromatic plants Low or non-alcoholic fermented foods and beverages of plant origin Traditional Food (English name) Traditional Food (National language) Food description Baked layers of pastry stuffed with pumpkin Tikvenik A dessert made of layers of pastry with pumpkin, sugar, cinnamon, walnuts Tsiteli Doli Bread Makhobeliani dolis puri A light blue tinged bread of oblong or oval shape, containing a small amount of floured makhobeli Cornmeal mush Mămăligă Mămăliga is prepared from corn flour boiled into water and salt Buckwheat porridge crumby Каша гречневая рассыпчатая A mass of non-agglomerated tenderized cereal grain prepared from fried buckwheat Bulgur pilaf Bulgur pilavı A type of pilaf made from bulgur, served hot Sour rye bread Хліб житній Bread made with various percentages of flour from rye grain Traditional Food (English name) Traditional Food (National language) Food description Halva Tahan Halva A dessert prepared with sugar or sugar syrup and sunflower seed and sesame seed tahini Flax oil Selis zeti Flaxseed oil (Linum usitatissimum L.) Mustard oil Горчичное масло Yellow oil with spicy taste derived from mustard seeds Roasted sunflower seeds Smazhene nasinnya Roast sunflower seeds (Helianthus annuus L.) Traditional Food (English name) Traditional Food (National language) Food description Mursal tea Mursalski chai An infusion of Sideritis scardica Gri Wild plum sauce Tkhemlis satsebeli Well seasoned wild plum sauce Herbal dish Mâncărică de verdeaţă The herbal dish is served cold during fasting periods. It is cooked with sauce Black tea Çay Medium sized black tea particles Cottage cheese with dill and garlic Pomazanka Cottage cheese spread with dill and garlic nationally called Pomazanka Traditional Food (English name) Traditional Food (National language) Food description Millet ale Boza A thick, fermented cereal based beverage with a sourish or sweetish taste Elderberry soft drink Socata Natural home-made soft drink without preservatives or artificial colorants made from elder flowers (Sambucus nigra L.) Kvass southern Квас южный A fermented beverage made from rye bread and juniper berries (Juniperus communis L.) Sautéed pickled green beans Fasulye turşusu kavurması A vegetable dish Sauerkraut Капуста білокачанна квашена Prepared from white cabbage Traditional foods from the same group have generally similar proximate analysis patterns. The highest content in macronutrients was found in foods from the oilseeds group. The proximate composition will be useful to include new nutritional data into national food composition databases and to promote and preserve traditional foods from Black Sea Area countries. Foods from this group are mainly composed of fat, with the exception of halva, which is mainly composed of sugars. Mustard oil and flax oil had a total fat content higher than 99%. Roasted sunflower seeds present the highest protein and total dietary fibre content. [1] D’Antuono L.F., Soares Costa H., Sanches-Silva A. (2010). BaSeFood: Sustainable exploitation of bioactive components from the Black Sea Area traditional foods. Nutrition Bulletin, 35, 272-278 E-mail: helena.costa@insa.min-saude.pt 35% 2% 8% 2% 43% 1% 9% Tsiteli doli bread 65% 1% 4% 1% 23% 1% 5% Buckwheat porridge crumby 74% 1% 2% 0% 21% 0% 2% Cornmeal mush 70% 1% 4% 4% 16% 2% 3% Bulgur pilaf 6% 2% 11% 3% 67% 2% 9% Sour rye bread 44% 2% 5% 15% 21% 11% 2% Baked layers of pastry stuffed with pumpkin 88% 2% 1% 0% 1% 6% 2% Wild plum sauce 88% 1% 1% 4% 1% 1% 4% Herbal dish 73% 1% 14% 9% 3% 0% Cottage cheese with dill and garlic 89% 0% 2% 0% 8% 0% 1% Millet alle 84% 1% 2% 4% 4% 2% 3% Sautéed pickled green beans 91% 2% 1% 0% 3% 1% 2% Sauerkraut 5% 1% 11% 30% 2% 46% 5% Halva 4% 3% 21% 57% 4% 11% Roasted sunflower seeds Moisture Ash Total protein Total fat Starch Total sugars Total dietary fibre Moisture Ash Total protein Total fat Starch Total sugars Total dietary fibre Moisture Ash Total protein Total fat Starch Total sugars Total dietary fibre Moisture Ash Total protein Total fat Starch Total sugars Total dietary fibre In this group, tsiteli doli bread and sour rye bread are the ones that have starch as main component and the highest dietary fibre content. The baked layers of pastry stuffed with pumpkin has the highest fat content (15%). Mursal tea and black tea, have a water content higher than 99%. Wild plum sauce has the highest sugars content (6%), while the cottage cheese with dill and garlic is the one with highest fat content (9%). In this group, the highest dietary fibre content is found for herbal dish (4%). Low or non-alcoholic fermented foods and beverages of plant origin, generally have a high water content. Elderberry soft drink and Kvass southern have a water content higher than 94%. Millet ale presented a high starch content (8%), while sautéed picked green beans is the food of this group with the highest fat content (4%).