School meals' centesimal and mineral composition and their nutritional value for Brazilian children

The assessment of meals served under the Brazilian National School Meal Program (PNAE) is an important tool to verify its adequacy to the proposed parameters and the nutritional needs of school-aged children. The aim of this study was to evaluate the centesimal and mineral composition of the meals offered by the program and adequacy to the nutritional recommendations in three municipalities of the state of Bahia, Brazil. Centesimal composition of meals was determined according to the reference guidelines and mineral composition was analyzed by atomic absorption spectrometry. Non-parametric analysis of variance was used to test the differences of the medians among the municipalities and Student-t test to compare the means between the two sampling periods. There were inadequacies in the carbohydrate, lipid and protein contents, and none of the municipalities reached the recommendation of 20%. Mineral concentration, especially Fe, Se, Cu and K were much lower than expected. Sodium levels were three-folds higher than the recommended, being worrisome due to higher risk of elevated blood pressure. There were inadequacies with regard to the PNAE guidelines, and there is a need to reevaluate the meals that are being offered to better meet childreńs needs and to form healthy habits from childhood.