Sodium and Potassium Intake from School Meals

Introduction: Children consume more than one-third of their daily food intake in schools, suggesting that these environments are ideal places for intervening on poor dietary behaviours. School meals play an important role in children’s diet especially for elementary school children aged from 6 to 9 years, to support normal growth, as well as the acquisition of taste and food preferences. Methodology: The purpose of this study was to determine the contribution of school meals to the daily sodium (Na) and potassium (K) intake and to evaluate the molar sodium: potassium (Na:K) ratio for the school meals. In this study, 19 school meals were collected from nineteen primary schools, located in two different cities in the Lisbon district. Analyses were carried out in accordance with ISO standard 17025. Sodium and potassium levels were determined using an Inductively Couple Plasma Atomic Emission Spectrometry–ICP-OES. To calculate the average molar Na:K ratio, sodium and potassium in micrograms (mg) were converted to millimoles (mmol) using the following conversion: 23 mg Na = 1 mmol Na, 39 mg K = 1 mmol K. Results: The Na content of the samples analysed ranging from 155 to 293 mg/100g and the K content between 98-193 mg/100g. The molar Na:K ratio exceeded the recommend level of 1, the values were between 2.2-4.3 (mmol). The results indicate that most of the school-meals presented a large amount of Na, but a small amount of K. In addition, the Na:K ratio is likely to be higher and doesn´t meet the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendation for a Na:K ratio of ≤1. Conclusions: These data enhance the importance of planning the school meals to achieve a reasonable amount of sodium and potassium accordingly to the recommendations for children population and to make informed decisions on appropriate nutrition actions to reduce potential risks for noncommunicable diseases.

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