Comparative testing of products for enteral nutrition

Abstract

Background. Comparative testing is a way for communicating information to consumers, used in international and national practice. For most of people in need for nutritional support, foods for enteral nutrition are the only way for importing vitally necessary substances in the body. For customers, the problem of selecting this group of goods at the market is caused by shortage of information about their quality.
The article’s objective is to perform comparative testing of foods for enteral nutrition, to inform the target category of consumers on the real level of nutritional qualities and safety of goods at the market.
Material and methods. 5 dry mixtures for enteral nutrition are selected as objects for comparative testing: Vitalprod-Combi (own development), Resourse Optimum (Nestle, Switzerland), Osmeral, (Humana, Germany), "Reabitalact" (public enterprise"Marina", Ukraine), Calshake (Fresenius Kabi, Germany).
The guidelines of the International Organization on Comparative Testing of Goods and Services, and standardized methods for investigating safety and quality of goodsare the methodological framework for the study.
Results. The developed program for comparative testing of foods for enteral nutrition included three phases: preparation phase, main phase, final phase. The results of the comparative testing reveal that all the foods for enteral nutrition have got the overall evaluation "excellent". However, a gap between the indicators of packaging and marking was found. At the same time, all the tested foods meet the existing requirements by organoleptic indicators and safety indicators. By physical-chemical indicators, a somewhat higher level of the humidity indicator was revealed in the products of "Reabitalact" and Calshak (10.1 та 11.3 % respectively).
Quality indicators, misleading information and falsified foods are determined as the factors of consumer risk when purchasing foods for enteral nutrition.
Conclusion. Comparative testing of foods for enteral nutrition lays firm grounds for informing consumers about actual conditions at the consumer market, probable risks and dangers involved in their consumption.
Developing measures intended to protect consumers of foods for enteral nutrition, especially ones aiming to prevent falsifications and create an effective system for informing consumers on their safety and qualityis promising and urgent.