The Nutritional Content of Rescued Food Conveyed by a Food Aid Organization

Anne Nogueira,Paula Vaz-Fernandes,Fátima Alves

doi:10.3390/ijerph182212212

Abstract

Background: The number of food-insecure families in the European Union has increased, resulting in an increasing number of households depending on food assistance programs. The aim in this study was to evaluate the nutrient content of food rescued by a food aid organization that rescues and redistributes fresh or freshly cooked food to low-income households. Methods: To determine the nutritional content of food hampers provided by our case study organization, we weighed all items of food hampers in three weighing rounds over a period of four months. The Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) was applied to measure households’ food insecurity. Results: Our results show that, at our case study food aid organization, food donations substantially contribute to energy, macro, and micronutrient dietary recommendation intake (DRI). Conclusions: When evaluating how these nutrients contribute to alleviating food insecurity of the beneficiary households, we found that the perception of food insecurity is independent of the amount of nutrients served. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study measuring the nutritional content of fresh or freshly cooked rescued food conveyed by a food aid organization.

Highlights

In 2017, the at risk of poverty rate in the European Union (EU-28) was 16.9% [1]
Considering the previously mentioned at risk of poverty rate and the amount of wasted food in the EU and the EU policies to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations [51], which include helping to eradicate hunger and malnutrition, food systems transformation, and saving nutritious food for redistribution to those in need, the research output on the nutritional value of upcycled food in the European continent has been unexpectedly low. This is precisely what we aimed to address in this study: (1) to quantify the nutrients of rescued and redistributed foods through a case study that involved the operations center of the Refood project in Leiria, Portugal [52]; (2) to evaluate how these nutrients contribute to alleviating the food insecurity of the beneficiary households
The results show that the food hampers contributed to more than 100% of the dietary recommendation intake (DRI) of Fe (156.3%), Cu (140.3%), total fat

Summary

Introduction

This means that the share of the European population with an equivalized disposable income below the at risk of poverty threshold (60% of the national median equivalized disposable income) was 16.9% This means that of 119.1 million people, 42.5 million were not able to afford a quality meal every second day [2]; the amount of European food waste is still around 88 million tons per year [3]. The aim in this study was to evaluate the nutrient content of food rescued by a food aid organization that rescues and redistributes fresh or freshly cooked food to low-income households. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study measuring the nutritional content of fresh or freshly cooked rescued food conveyed by a food aid organization

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion