Feeding practices of households in Burkina Faso, source of daily total energy, macronutrient, and micronutrients intake

Abstract

Food insecurity and poor nutrition still affects most of the world’s population with serious consequences for the health and well-being. Thus, the nutritional situation in Burkina Faso as in other Sahelian African countries remains a concern. One of the immediate causes of this situation is inadequate food intake.

The overall objective of this study is to estimate intakes of macro and micronutrients dishes commonly consumed and their contribution to cover the needs at the household level.

This is a descriptive cross-sectional study, in which qualitative and quantitative data on food consumption were collected using 24-hour recall and the weighing of the ingredients of daily consumption of house­holds. The study involved eight regions identified purposely in which 28 provinces were covered. 5 villages in each province were selected for a total of 140 villages. In each village, 15 households were sampled according to the EPI method for the investigation.

In total 2033 households were surveyed. Over 69 % of consumer groups have taken at least 3 meals the day before the survey. The foods consumed in these households were in order of frequency tô (80.45 %), beans (7.7 %), rice (6.4 %). cereal porridge (3 %). When the dish is served tôt, the accompanying sauce was most often Baobab leaves (64 %) or other vegetables and leaves (15.3 %), okra (10.2 %).

Cereals provide 88.1% of the total energy, carbohydrate 95.4 %, 58.7 % lipids and 75.5 % of the protein. Cereals are also the main source of micronutrients (83.4% total iron. zinc and 87.6 % of total). In terms of nutritional balance, the percentage of calories derived from protein was 12.8 %. However, animal protein accounted for only 11.4 % of total protein. The contribution of fat to energy was 13.2 %.

This study explored the organization of food consumption in households, and estimated the energy and nutrient intake at the household level. Strategies for effective interventions to prevent malnutrition in households will be built around food diversification, support for households to improve food availability in quantity and quality.