An assessment of chemical and nutritional analysis of some food samples in urban city

Nutrition food labeling is a popular method for making the food selection more conducive to health by providing information to consumers about the nutrient content of the food we eat. Analysis of such food packets in laboratory and understanding the nutrient content in the food is important. Ready to eat food packets and edible oils samples were collected from local market and analysed for protein, crude fiber, carbohydrate and fat content. The results were further analysed to obtain percent Daily Value of each nutrient for all the samples analysed.

The% Daily Value for protein ranged between 8.18 to 26.14%., fat content in the range of 16.6 to 59.49%, carbohydrate in the range of 14.58 to 24 40%. In case of edible oils SFA, PUFA, and MUFA were calculated. A relationship between saturated and polyunsaturated FA content was determined and expressed as P/S index. This value is an important parameter for determination of nutritional value of oils. Oils with higher P/S index than 1 are considered to have nutritional value. The higher value for P/S index was found for mustard oil (4.29) and the lowest for palm oil (0.18).