Teor de sódio em preparações oferecidas por restaurantes comerciais da cidade de Itaqui, RS

Abstract

Assess sodium content in preparations offered by commercial self-service restaurants in the Itaqui city. Methods Three collects of cooked food (white rice, bean in broth and roast meat) were performed in five restaurants. The samples were submitted to pre-drying, milling and nitropercloric digestion previously to the sodium assessment through flame photometry. Results Rice from restaurant No. 2 presented the highest sodium levels, but did not differ from No.4 during the 1st collect, while the levels of No.3 were the lowest of the three collects. All rice samples exceeded the dietary recommendation of salt. Beans from restaurant No. 4 presented the highest levels of sodium, while the lowest levels were found in the 1st and 2nd collects of No. 5 and in the 3rd of No. 4. Only the beans from restaurant No. 5 in the 1st and 2nd collects were set to the recommendation of 131 mg% sodium. Different restaurants presented high levels of sodium in the meat on each collect, whereas the highest level was verified on No. 4, followed by No. 1 and No. 5. Restaurant No. 2 demonstrated sodium levels below the recommendation of 283 mg% for meat. The sum of the portions averaged between 848.50 to 2736.40 mg of sodium, with lowest values found at restaurant No. 3. Conclusion Salt is overused in the restaurants preparations, complying with dietary recommendations only in two samples of beans (15%) and three samples of meat (20%). The sum of the portions from the three samples did not exceed the Workers’ Food Program limit just in the 2nd collect of restaurant No. 3.