Chemical and nutritional composition of some common foods in Abeokuta, Nigeria

Chemical composition of seven common foods viz. cooked rice, cooked beans, cooked yams, cooked fufu, fried fish, stew, and vegetable soup, sold by the selected (147) vendors in Abeokut, were investigated. Descriptive statistics was used to analyse the collected data. The results of the proximate analysis of food samples showed that the mean moisture content of the street foods ranged from 44.87% in fried fish to 72.43% in cooked fufu. Protein content varied from 0.03% in cooked fufu to 14.47% in fried fish while the fat content ranged from 0.03% in cooked fufu to 34.43% in fried fish. Ash and carbohydrate contents ranged from 0.42% in cooked rice to 16.07% in vegetable soup and 0.73% in stew to 29.27% in cooked rice, respectively. The energy content ranged from 89.0 Kcal in cooked fufu to 375.24 Kcal in fried fish. In general, fried fish had the highest values of protein (14.47%), fat (34.43%) and energy content (375.24 KCal.). The results showed that there were no appreciable differences in the proximate composition of the selected foods across the locations.