Dietary Intake of Selected Common Vegetable Foods and their Total Carotenoids Determination

Problem Statement: Vitamin A Deficiency (VAD) remains widespread in many countries including Jordan, mainly due to inadequate dietary intake of vitamin A and carotenoids. Approach: Few researches on carotenoid content in vegetables and fruits are carried out. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the dietary intake of selected common foods among a sample of adult Jordanians, by using Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) and to analyze the carotenoid contents in selected vegetable foods by using UV spectrophotometry . Results: Among the total sample of 200 adults men and women, the consumption per person per week of rice was 21.1 serving, olive oil 20.9 serving, fresh carrot 13.6 serving, tomato 8.28 serving, mint 6.63 serving, chickpea 5.07 serving and parsley 5.03 serving. The total carotenoid contents were found in high concentrations in mint 25.2 mg 100 g^-1, parsley 21.8 mg 100g^-1, mallow 12.6 mg 100 g^-1 and carrot 8.79 mg 100g^-1. Zucchini, okra, tomato and green beans also contained appreciable amounts of carotenoids 3.38, 2.54, 2.19 and 1.97 mg 100 g^-1, respectively. Eggplant had the lowest content of carotenoids 0.48 mg 100g^-1. Conclusions: These finding could help the meal planning at a community level by including such high content of carotenoid vegetables in meals, which will lead to decrease the incidence of vitamin A deficiency disease. Further studies in this concern is highly recommended to solve such problem worldwide .