Definition and documentation of traditional foods of the black sea area countries: potential nutrition claims.

BACKGROUND: Nutrition and health claims are permitted in foods marketed in the European Union under Regulation 1924 of 2006. Quality products, like in any traditional foods, might benefit from this act as it can highlight their nutritional richness. We evaluated the nutritional content of 33 traditional foods from the Black Sea Area Countries against the thresholds of the Regulation for nutrition claims.

RESULTS: Most of the foods were eligible to bear several nutrition claims, mostly related to their fat, sugar, fiber and sodium content. The average number of claims per traditional food was 2, with a range between 0 and 9. Overall, about 72 nutrition claims were potentially relevant for the 33 traditional foods studied. Foods linked with the most claims were nuts and seeds.

CONCLUSION: The inclusion of traditional foods under this standardized European scheme could be an efficient way to highlight their possible beneficial nutritional properties. The production and marketing of traditional foods could be of benefit to both the health of consumer and the economic viability of producers, especially Small and Medium -Size Enterprises.