Introduction. The Ukrainian traditional foods are characterized by the use of a large diversity of recipes for the same dish. The best example is the traditional Ukrainian food – borsch – known at least in dozens of varieties containing up to twenty ingredients.
This work aims to determine the nutritional composition of three traditional foods from western Ukraine that have been prioritised in the frame of the BaSeFood project (Sustainable Exploitation of Bioactive Components Black Sea Area traditional foods).
Material and methods. Three traditional foods: Transcarpathian green borsch, roasted sunflower seeds and cottage cheese with dill and garlic were selected and the nutritional composition was determined. The following components: moisture, ash, total nitrogen (for protein), total fat, individual fatty acids, starch, total sugars and dietary fibre were quantified for each food.
Results. The energy value for the analysed traditional foods was 181 kJ/43 kcal for Transcarpathian green borsch, 687 kJ/164 kcal for cottage cheese with dill and garlic, and 2675 kJ/640 kcal for roasted sunflower seeds. From the three selected traditional foods for western Ukraine, roasted sunflower seeds have the highest total fat content (58.2  2.16 g/100 g), of which 49.4 g/100 g are unsaturated fatty acids. They also contain a high protein content (20.8  0.40 g/100 g) and a considerable total dietary fibre content (11.3  1.09 g/100 g).
Regarding the available carbohydrates content, the amount per 100 g was 2.49 ± 1.33 g for roasted sunflower seeds, 5.52 ± 1.75 g for Transcarpathian green borsch and 8.20 ± 0.25 g for cottage cheese with dill and garlic. In the case of roasted sunflower seeds, most of the carbohydrates were sugars (2.36 ± 0.13 g/100 g). Results are given per 100 g of edible portion.
Conclusions. This study will contribute to characterize the dietary pattern of western Ukraine as a part of the cultural inheritance of this country. Moreover, these results can be useful to preserve and promote these traditional foods.