RATIONS AND RECOMMENDED DAILY INTAKE OF MICRONUTRIENTS LOST IN THE MERMA OF FRUITS AND VEGETABLES OF A SELF-SERVICE STORE

Introduction: Annually one third of all food produced in the world for human consumption is lost or wasted; estimating that half of the group that is lost are fruits and vegetables. Objective: To determine the amount of rations and the number of Mexican adults that would cover the daily portion recommendation of micronutrients from the waste of fruits and vegetables from a self-service store. Methods: Case study was determined by the wasted of fruit and vegetables in a self-service store in southeastern Mexico, for a period of 10 months; The nutritional information was obtained using the nutritional value tables of the food and the database of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA); The recommendations of the main vitamins and minerals for Mexican adults and the micronutrient rations were calculated. Results: The total decrease of fruits and vegetables for 10 months was 150,250.8 kg. Of which 72% corresponds to the net weight (107,692.31 kg) and the remaining 28% to the inedible parts (42,558.49 kg). Vegetable's wasting is higher (59%) than fruit (41%); 48% of the losses are made up of tomato, mango, pineapple, carrot, lemon, apple and chayote. The total waste of vegetables would cover IDR of 1,385 people in 10 months, and the fruits of 733; the vitamins may have covered the RDI of retinol, ascorbic acid, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, pyridoxine and folic acid. The minerals may have covered the RDI of calcium, phosphorus, iron, magnesium, sodium, potassium and zinc. Conclusion: The waste in these foods could have benefited the population by covering their recommended daily intake (RDI) of vitamins and minerals with a total of 643,695 rations in 10 months.