Nutritional Content of Street Food and Takeaway Food Purchased in Urban Bosnia and Herzegovina

Evaluating the water footprint and nutritional quality of takeaway dishes for selected large cities in China

The takeaway food and delivery market is developing rapidly in China, raising concerns about the impacts of takeaway dishes on both health and the environment. Here, we compare the environmental impact and nutritional performance of 32 popular takeaway dishes, which stem from the top 10 best-selling takeaway dishes in 10 large cities in China. We select water footprint and water scarcity footprint indicators to represent the environmental impact, and the Food Compass Score to measure nutritional quality. Our results show that 24 out of 32 takeaway dishes contains meat, which has a higher water footprint. The inhabitants of water stressed Chinese cities, mainly located in northern China, tend to favor meat dishes, resulting in a larger water scarcity footprint. The results also highlight the lower nutrition quality of the majority of takeaway dishes, with only three takeaway dishes meeting acceptable environmental and nutritional standards. Our study highlights the importance of analyzing dishes rather than individual foods, which can facilitate sustainable dietary choices for consumers.

Fatty Acid Composition of Selected Street Foods Commonly Available in Malaysia

Despite growing evidence of increased saturated and trans fat contents in street foods, little is known about their fatty acid (FA) compositions. This study aimed to analyse the saturated fatty acids (SFAs), monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs), polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), and trans fatty acids (TFAs) content of 70 selected and most commonly available street foods in Malaysia. The street foods were categorised into main meals, snacks, and desserts. TFAs were not detected in any of the street foods. Descriptively, all three categories mainly contained SFAs, followed by MUFAs, and PUFAs. However, the one-way ANOVA testing showed that the differences between each category were insignificant (p > 0.05), and each FA was not significantly different (p > 0.05) from one to another. Nearly half of the deep-fried street foods contained medium to high SFAs content (1.7 g/100 g–24.3 g/100 g), while the MUFAs were also high (32.0–44.4%). The Chi-square test of association showed that the type of preparation methods (low or high fat) used was significantly associated (p < 0.05) with the number of SFAs. These findings provide valuable information about fat composition in local street foods for the Malaysian Food Composition Database and highlight the urgency to improve nutritional composition.

Street Food and Takeaway Food Purchasing Patterns in Bosnia and Herzegovina

This study aimed to describe street food and takeaway food purchasing patterns in Sarajevo and Banja Luka, throughout the day and by city location. A cross-sectional evaluation of street food and takeaway food customers was conducted in 2017. All eligible vending sites (n = 348) in the vicinity of selected markets and bus stops were included. Data on the food items purchased, and time and geographic location of the purchases were collected. A total of 755 customers purchased 929 food items. Takeaway venues showed higher customer influx (5.0 vs. 2.0 customers observed per 10 min of observation, p < 0.001) and buying rates (6.7 vs. 2.0 items bought per 10 min of observation, p < 0.001; 1.5 vs. 1.0 items bought per customer, p < 0.001) than street food sites. These rates were higher in city peripheries for street food venues, and in city centres for takeaway establishments. The purchase of industrial food products prevailed throughout the day in street food venues, whereas most takeaway purchases comprised homemade foods, with or without industrial beverages. The proportion of customers buying foods and beverages together was higher in takeaway venues (15.3% vs. 6.0%, p < 0.001), especially during lunchtime and in city centres. In street food vending sites, sweet and savoury snacks seemed to be preferred in the afternoon, whereas in takeaway food establishments, savoury pastries and main dishes were mostly purchased at breakfast or lunch, and bread during the morning. Soft drinks and industrial juices were frequently purchased in both types of vending site and at all hours of the day, particularly in the afternoon. Our findings provide an overview of street food and takeaway food buying habits and consumer demands in these cities, reflecting local food culture and dietary behaviours. The identification of the meal contexts and city sub-regions in which specific purchasing practices emerge point to potential priority targets. These insights can be useful when designing interventions adapted to the specificities of these food environments and the food habits of customers.

Highly Nutritional Bread with Partial Replacement of Wheat by Amaranth and Orange Sweet Potato

The current dietary habits cause health problems due to foods’ composition, with bread as an important example. Our aim was to formulate an optimum dough blend with flours from wheat, amaranth and orange sweet potato to obtain a physically good and highly nutritional bread. Bread was prepared with blends of wheat, amaranth and orange sweet potato flours, optimizing the technological properties of the doughs by the response surface methodology and analyzing their physical and nutritional properties. Amaranth provides protein and fiber, and sweet potatoes provide β-carotenoids and high antioxidant activity. The prediction models were adjusted by mixing time (MT), peak dough resistance (PDR), setback (SB) and breakdown (BD). The interaction between wheat and amaranth significantly (p < 0.05) affected MT, PDR and SB, while the interaction between amaranth and sweet potato affected BD (p < 0.05); none of the components influenced PDR. The optimized blend (68.7% wheat, 22.7% amaranth and 8.6% sweet potato) produced a bread with the best crust and crumb appearance. This bread was comparable to that made with 100% wheat in specific volume and textural characteristics, but had better protein quality, higher content of fermentable fiber, pro-vitamin A, and bioactive compounds with good antioxidant capacity, and a lower glycemic index.