Perfil do consumo alimentar infantil em São Tomé e Príncipe e produção de bolachas para complemento da dieta escolar

• Author(s): Santos, Miguel Francisco Gama Martins Lucas
• Date: 2014
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/8299
• Origin: Repositório da UTL
• Subject(s): cookies; eating habits; child nutrition; São Tomé e Príncipe
• Document Type: Master thesis
• Language: Portuguese
• Advisor(s): Sousa, Isabel Maria Nunes de; Correia, Augusto Manuel
• Contributor(s): Repositório da Universidade de Lisboa

Description

Mestrado em Engenharia Alimentar - Instituto Superior de Agronomia

Sao Tome e Principe (STP) has a real public health issue when it comes to nutritional deficiencies in infancy and its effects on child development, namely in school performance, health and survival. Children from the ages of 6 to 12 years old are the least studied ones and to prevent hypovitaminosis A in this targeted group a complement to their diet is proposed in this work. A staple food, popular among children and easy to store, carry and eat, like sweet cookies, was selected to carry the envisaged diet supplements. Moreover the formulation was developed including over 60% of local produces and iodine salt and technology was transferred to a local bakery facility to set up all the conditions for the project to be successfully implemented in the near future. This goal was supported with the help of a questionnaire about children’s eating habits (QFA) and furthermore by a query to the children acceptability of the produced cookies. In this research project we were able to apply locally the QFA to over 1108 people and results worked out to support the cookies formulation as a diet supplement. The formulation was developed with the target of incorporating iodine and pro-vitamine A (carotene) compounds as well as the maximum possible of local all season products. The formula for the cookies was also fully described along with the respective recipe and processing conditions and technology directly transferred to a local institution with a bakery facility where more than ten productions were successfully achieved to supply cookies for the relevant testing. Furthermore, the quantification of the macronutrients and pro-vitamin A (beta-carotene) components of the produced cookies, the rheology characterization of the cookies dough and the instrumental evaluation of their crisp texture were performed at ISA labs in Lisbon. Lastly, the acceptance test was distributed to over 658 STP’s school children. It is concluded that the cookies are rich in fibres and can be included in the school menu, as it had a global acceptance of over 85%, has the STP Law demands. As for the eating habits of the population, it was possible to see that there is still an excess of candy, soda and alcoholic beverages in their diets. The consumption of food rich in proteins, such as milk or meat, is still very low. Therefore, this project is ready to go and be used as a complement to children diet by the local production and school distribution of these rich cookies.