Traditional foods: a contribution to biodiversity and sustainable diets

Comunicação científica a convite Traditional foods are an important element of the culture, history, identity, heritage of a region or country and are key elements for the dietary patterns. These foods are commonly perceived as foods that have been consumed locally or regionally for a long time and the methods of preparation of such foods have been passed from generation to generation. Traditional foods also give a valuable contribution to the development and economic sustainability of rural areas and to the preservation of biodiversity. One of the aims within the EuroFIR (European Food Information Resource) project was to generate new data on the nutritional composition of 55 traditional foods from 13 European countries. To achieve this, a EuroFIR consensus-based method with standardised procedures was applied for the systematic study of traditional foods and recipes. Traditional foods were selected based on the EuroFIR definition of the term “traditional food” and prioritised according to specific criteria: documentation of traditional character; composition data; consumption data; health implications and marketing potential. To assure the quality of analytical results, accredited laboratories or laboratories with successful participation in proficiency testing were chosen. Data were evaluated and fully documented (food description, recipe, ingredients, sampling plan, sample handling, component identification, method specification, value and quality assessment) according to EuroFIR standards for inclusion in the national food composition databases. These approaches developed in EuroFIR have been further extended in the BaSeFood (Sustainable exploitation of bioactive components from the Black Sea Area traditional foods) project, which aims to deliver information on bioactive substances and related health claims in order to give opportunities to stakeholders to develop sustainable diets. A subset of 33 prioritised traditional foods from Black Sea Area countries has been identified and the nutritional composition and key bioactive compounds are being determined, using previously developed and validated EuroFIR guidelines. The use of a common methodology for the study of traditional foods will enable countries to further investigate their traditional foods and to continue to update their national food composition databases. Moreover, knowledge base of traditional foods from Black Sea Area countries will contribute to promote local biodiversity and sustainable diets, by maintaining healthy dietary patterns within local cultures. This work was completed on behalf of the EuroFIR (EU FP6 ‘Food Quality and Safety Programme; Contract nº 513944) and BaSeFood (EU FP7 KBBE Theme 2: Food, Agriculture and Fisheries; Contract nº 227118) consortia.