Traditional food in Serbia: Sources, recipes and fatty acids profiles

Abstract

Traditional foods play a major role in traditions of different cultures and regions for thousands of years while preparation methods of traditional foods are part of the folklore of a country or a region. This paper presents recipes and fatty acid profiles of selected commonly consumed traditional foods in Serbia. The obtained fatty acid composition data are used for making conclusions about meals which are commonly consumed in Serbia. Traditional Serbian dairy products, cheese and kajmak, contained 70% SFAs (mostly palmitic acid). Commonly used meal in Serbian cuisine, prebranac, also contained palmitic acid and oleic acid (38.67% and 35.58% respectively), while linoleic acid was presented with 17.34%, similarly to vanilice. Ajvar, frequently used as a salad, is rich in linoleic acid (49.12%) but less rich in palmitic acid. Trans fatty acids were found in very small amounts in all foods.

Tradicionalna hrana ima važnu ulogu u različitim kulturama i regionima, dok načini njene pripreme predstavljaju deo običaja zemlje ili regiona. U ovom radu su predstavljeni recepti i masno-kiselinski profili nekih od uobičajeno konzumiranih tradicionalnih jela u Srbiji. Tradicionalni srpski mlečni proizvodi, sir i kajmak, sadržavali su 70% zasićenih masnih kiselina, uglavnom palmitinske kiseline. Često konzumirano jelo prebranac, sadržavalo je 38.67% palmitinske i 35.58% oleinske kiseline, dok je sadržaj linolne kiseline bio 17.34%. Ajvar, često korišćen kao salata, ima visok sadržaj linolne kiseline (49.12%). Detektovani su veoma mali sadržaji trans masnih kiselina u svim ispitivanim uzorcima hrane. Globalizacija i internacionalizacija tržišta hrane doprinose riziku nestajanja tradicionalne hrane, te su podaci o njoj važni za očuvanje kulturnog nasleđa.