Avaliação da pegada hídrica de cardápios servidos em uma creche de um município do interior do Rio Grande do Norte.

Abstract

The National School Nutrition Program (NSNP) aims to provide healthy food for children and adolescents students of the public school network of all modalities, through transfers made by the federal government to the state and then to the municipalities. For managers of institutional Food and Nutrition Units, such as school kitchens, it is important to plan menus to reduce the environmental impact, so actions should be planned in order to ensure sustainability, using natural resources such as water and energy in a balanced way. Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate the Water Footprint (WF) of menus of a daycare center in the countryside of Rio Grande do Norte. For this evaluation, data from a compilation with WF values of the most diverse foods and culinary preparations present in the consumption of the Brazilian population were used. The Water Footprint of the preparations present in the menu was calculated. After the evaluation, it was possible to detect that the highest water footprint index was in the breakfast of the second week, which had in its preparation bread with egg and mango juice, followed by fruit salad. The preparations that contained fruit had a higher WF value, this occurred due to the low per capita of food sources of animal origin, since they are foods that have a higher cost, and the financial resources of the program are limited. It is important to emphasize that fruits are good sources of vitamins, fiber, and minerals, and are indispensable in the diet. One way to minimize the negative environmental impact is for them to be purchased from family farms, respecting the culture and seasonality.