BackgroundAccording to the World Health Organization (WHO), iron, iodine, and Vitamin A deficiencies are the most common forms of malnutrition, leading to severe public health consequences. The importance of iron and zinc in human nutrition and the number of children found to be deficient in these nutrients make further studies on retention in cooked grains and cooked bean broth important.ObjectivesThis work aimed to evaluate iron and zinc retention in six common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) cultivars under the following conditions: raw beans, regular pot cooking, pressure cooking, with and without previous water soaking, and broth.DesignDetermination of iron and zinc content in the raw, cooked bean grains and broth samples was carried out by Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) Optical Emission Spectrometry (Spectro Analytical Instrument – Spectroflame P). All experiments and analyses were carried out in triplicate.ResultsOverall, regardless of the cooking method, with or without previous water soaking, the highest zinc concentration was found in the cooked bean grains. However, pressure cooking and previous water soaking diminished iron retention in the cooked grains, while increasing it in the bean broth.ConclusionThe common bean was confirmed to be an excellent source of iron and zinc for human consumption, and it was suggested that beans should be consumed in a combined form, i.e. grain with bean broth.

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Experimental validation was given to molecular dynamics calculations regarding the preferential retention of sulfate ions in the calcite polymorph of calcium carbonate.

Pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata Duch) is one of the crop foods targeted for nutritional enhancement by biofortification due to the relatively high content of pro‐vitamin A carotenoids in some varieties. We investigated the effect of three common styles of home cooking of pumpkin on retention and the bioaccessibility of pro‐vitamin A carotenoids in five genotypes of biofortified pumpkin developed by Embrapa. Pulp from three of the biofortified genotypes contained greater than 450 µg/g FW total pro‐vitamin A carotenoids with all‐<em style=”mso‐bidi‐font‐style: normal;”>E‐βC being most abundant. Retention of pro‐vitamin A in pulp after boiling in water or water with 60% sucrose for 5 min or steaming for 7 min decreased pro‐vitamin A content by 5‐22% and 13‐22% in two of the genotypes with highest content of pro‐vitamin A, but there were no losses of pro‐vitamin A in the other genotypes. Bioaccessibility of pro‐vitamin A as assessed by <em style=”mso‐bidi‐font‐style: normal;”>in vitro digestion of cooked pumpkin was poor (0.3‐3.3%). Despite the low efficiency of micellarization, the amount of bioaccessible pro‐vitamin A provided in a 100g serving of boiled and steamed flesh of genotype 58 was approximately 30 and 21%, respectively, of the EAR of vitamin A for children 4‐8 and 9‐13 years of age, respectively.