Loss of food nutrients orchestrated by cooking pots: a common trend in developing world

Six types of cooking pots with five different food stuffs were used to investigate the influence of cooking pots on macro and micronutrients of cooked foods. A general trend observed was that cooking pot forged from titanium offered best protection (retention) of micronutrients while pitted aluminum pot offered the lowest irrespective of the food sample cooked. Titanium and enamel coated cooking pots required less quantity of water to get food done resulting into a low (68.67%) moisture content for food cooked in such pots in contrast to values as high as 77.89% when other pots were used. Our research evidenced that cooking pot may have impact on people's morbidity since steady consumption of food cooked in some pots may aggravate, micronutrient malnutrition. Our findings suggest a contrary view to the previous idea of using pressure pot to cook food. Pots that offered low-pressure cooking (82 °C/0.53 bar) was found to preserve the most heat liable nutrients. Our recommendation, therefore, is the use of titanium and enamel coated cooking pots which offered better retention of food nutrients. Cooking may cause changes to food nutrient depending on foodstuff, materials used in forging the pot as well as the fitness of the pot lid.