[The assessment of nutrient value of vegetables]

The criterion for the nutrient value of vegetables ist their specific contribution to the nutrition of man, whereby particular emphasis must be placed on vitamin C, carotene, raw fibre, calcium and iron. The contents of these constituents have been summarized as "factor of essential nutritive value". The metabolic processes and other biochemical transformations, however, require a dynamical consideration of the mentioned factor with regard to the changing nutrition components. In review of the dependence of quality changes on storage temperature (teta) and storage period in days (xi) a model is presented demonstrating a "dynamical factor of the essential nutrient value WNF (teta:xi) "for different vegetable crops. It is supplemented by the corresponding regression functions and nomograms for its calculation, which emanate from the degree of quality of product at the moment of harvesting. For quickly perishable vegetables WNF (teta:xi) decreased by up to 27%. Species which store well as well as favourable storage conditions produced significantly lower decreases. Introducing a dynamical assessment of the nutritive value may contribute to a preciser rating of the physiological value of vegetables.