Proximate and mineral composition of some commonly consumed traditional foods/dishes in Nasarawa state, Nigeria

Traditional foods are recognizable specific cuisine or food peculiar to a particular ethnic group, locality or society. Traditional foods are not only consume for their nutritional values but also for their medicinal and socio-cultural significance. However, information on the nutrient compositions of some of these indigenous dishes are not yet documented. This study is aimed at evaluating the proximate and mineral composition of commonly consumed traditional foods in Nasarawa state Nigeria. A cross sectional survey was adopted and recipes were collected across the ethnic groups for the commonly consumed traditional foods in Nasarawa state. The recipes of ten (10) commonly consumed traditional dishes were standardized in the laboratory, prepared and evaluated for proximate and mineral composition using standard procedures of analyses. The result shows that Moisture content of the foods ranged from 13.39 to 5.78g /100g, Crude fibre content was from 19.45 to 2.93g /100g, Crude protein ranged from 24.22 - 5.43g /100g, Crude fat 30.32 - 0.92g /100g and Ash 9.84 - 3.82g/100g, Carbohydrate content ranged from 57.31 - 27.17g /100g and the energy value content ranged from 458.63 - 326.68g /100g. The results of mineral composition further reveal that sodium ranged between 126.00 and 32.00ppm /100g, potassium between 22.36 and 6.72ppm /100g, calcium between 2.08 and 0.64ppm/100g, phosphorus between 2.17 and 0.80ppm /100g, Magnesium 7.25 and 2.74ppm /100g), while the values for iron, zinc and copper ranged from 4.74 to 2.32ppm /100g, 1.55 to 0.09ppm/ 100g and 20.49 to 0.17ppm /100g respectively. Conclusively, the consumption of these foods will help reduce the high level of non-communicable chronic diseases as they are gotten from natural sources.