[Fatty acid content in Jiangnan dishes in Hangzhou]

To analyze the fatty acid content of Jiangnan dishes in Hangzhou.

Based on the order frequency records from an online platform, two popular Jiangnan cuisine restaurants were selected for monitoring. Fat extraction was performed on three types of dishes: purely vegetarian, mixed vegetarian and non-vegetarian, and purely non-vegetarian, using acid hydrolysis. The extracted fats from these dishes were then analyzed using gas chromatography to determine the content of 37 different fatty acids, followed by a classification analysis.

The average contents of saturated fatty acids(SFA), monounsaturated fatty acids(MUFA) and polyunsaturated fatty acids(PUFA) in the sampled home cooking were 2.477, 1.961 and 0.837 mg/g, respectively, of which the average contents of the n-3 PUFA and the n-6 PUFA were 0.175 and 0.648 mg/g, respectively. Vegetarian dish S/M/P was 1∶1.36∶0.39, half meat and half vegetarian dish S/M/P was 1∶2.02∶0.88, and meat dish S/M/P was 1∶0.15∶0.13. Vegetarian vegetable n-6 PUFA/n-3 PUFA was 1.84, half-meat and half vegetarian dish n-6 PUFA/n-3 PUFA was 6.51, and meat dish n-6 PUFA/n-3 PUFA was 3.50.

In Jiangnan cuisine of Hangzhou, purely vegetarian dishes have a low PUFA content, mixed vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes have a high MUFA content, and purely non-vegetarian dishes have low levels of both MUFA and PUFA. The content of n-6 PUFA in these home-cooked dishes is much higher than that of n-3 PUFA, especially in half-meat and half-vegetarian dishes.