Loss of food nutrients orchestrated by cooking pots: a common trend in developing world
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Loss of food nutrients orchestrated by cooking pots: a common trend in developing world Uloma E. Onyeka1
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Obinna N. Ibeawuchi1
Revised: 7 September 2020 / Accepted: 9 September 2020 Ó Association of Food Scientists & Technologists (India) 2020
Abstract Six types of cooking pots with five different food stuffs were used to investigate the influence of cooking pots on macro and micronutrients of cooked foods. A general trend observed was that cooking pot forged from titanium offered best protection (retention) of micronutrients while pitted aluminum pot offered the lowest irrespective of the food sample cooked. Titanium and enamel coated cooking pots required less quantity of water to get food done resulting into a low (68.67%) moisture content for food cooked in such pots in contrast to values as high as 77.89% when other pots were used. Our research evidenced that cooking pot may have impact on people’s morbidity since steady consumption of food cooked in some pots may aggravate, micronutrient malnutrition. Our findings suggest a contrary view to the previous idea of using pressure pot to cook food. Pots that offered low-pressure cooking (82 °C/ 0.53 bar) was found to preserve the most heat liable nutrients. Our recommendation, therefore, is the use of titanium and enamel coated cooking pots which offered better retention of food nutrients. Cooking may cause changes to food nutrient depending on foodstuff, materials used in forging the pot as well as the fitness of the pot lid. Keywords Cooking pot Food Nutrient Morbidity
& Uloma E. Onyeka [email protected] 1
Department of Food Science and Technology, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Nigeria
Introduction There is abundant evidence that cooking reduces the level of nutrients in foods, but the reductions are exacerbated by such factors as the type of cooking pot used (Greger et al. 1985; Mougin et al. 2015; Weidenhamer et al. 2014; Stahl et al. 2017a, b, c). A foodstuff that is naturally nutrientdense can be turned into poison-dense before it gets into the mouth depending on its handling and processing operations. Several factors, including materials (composition) and design of the cooking pot (Mougin et al. 2015; Weidenhamer et al. 2014) influence the losses and changes associated with food nutrients during cooking. In addition to cooking duration or time, temperature/pressure as well as the interaction between pot surface and food materials are other major factors that affect the nutrient components of food during cooking. From thermodynamics point of view, the temperature at which solution boils in a cooking pot affects the nutrient status of the food being cooked. The boiling temperature depends on the prevailing atmospheric pressure of the system and changes with elevation. Liquid boils at higher temperature under increased atmospheric pressure. So boiling occurs when the vapor pressure (the degree to which the liquid molecules are escaping into the vapor phase) reaches or exceeds the surrounding pressure from the a
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