Adequação nutricional e desperdício de alimentos em centros de educação infantil de Maceió, AL

Abstract

The School Feeding programs find to generate benefits to students, are nutritional, through the partial supply of nutritional requirements and prevent truancy, and provide greater social interaction between teachers, students and school community. However, in order to contribute to the discussion about the School Feeding Program, this dissertation presents two articles: the first it is a narrative review, which discusses the current situation of the School Feeding programs in Latin America, of which we sought identify: type of coverage, population served, modality, offered meals, nutritional recommendations and for the purchase of products from the family farm. About 70% of countries have a program with universal, more than 80% meets the urban and rural population, on average 50% refer or recommend the use of food from family farms in their guidelines. Countries showed great heterogeneity among programs, suggesting the need for review and discussion of distribution of meals, as well as its qualitative and quantitative composition. The second original article refers to a cross-sectional study in Maceió / AL, which sought to evaluate the nutritional adequacy of the meals served and consumed by Early Childhood Education Centers of children served by the National School Feeding Programme and quantifying food waste in these institutions. All served and consumed preparations were analyzed by three non-consecutive days in all institutions. Meals of 364 children aged between 17 and 63 months assisted by the program were analyzed. The nutritional value obtained for the served and consumed meals were compared with reference values for energy, carbohydrate, protein, lipid, vitamins A and C, iron, calcium, zinc, magnesium, sodium and fiber. Food waste was determined by the rest-intake rate. Meals served and consumed attended approximately 50% of the recommended for energy and macronutrients. In short, the comparison between the average offered nutrients consumed and showed statistical significance (p <0.05) for fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, iron and zinc. Of the 85 food / gifts preparations on the menu, 58 (68%) had high-rest intake percentage, more than 10%. The results showed that both the foods served and those actually consumed did not guarantee the recommended nutritional recommendations, with a high amount of wasted food, with a statistically significant difference between specific nutrients offered and consumed.