Contribution of forest food to food security in the Basin of Congo

This dataset contains tables of: household census, anthropometric data by household, results of focus group surveys, food security estimation, nutrient analysis first phase (raw data) and results of nutreauceuticals properties analysis. Firstly the studied villages were selected in each country on the basis of their accessibility, ethnicity and proximity to the selected timber logging company. The study was carried out using two methods of investigation: Focus group discussion and household’s interview. - Focus group discussion (3 groups: men, women and children; each group containing 8 to 15 individuals): It was in the aims of finding forest food consumed by these populations, and also to identify the most important forest food of their diets, with a particular accent about those from the trees exploited by forest companies. - Interviews in the households: they were carried out using a questionnaire structured in 5 sections. Section A: Evaluation of the socio-economic and demographic status of the households; Section B: Evaluation of the household food insecurity; Section C: Evaluation of contribution of forest foods to the food diversity of the households through a 24 h recall; Section D: Evaluation the food frequency consumption of the various groups of food; Section E: Evaluation of knowledge, attitudes and practical of the forest inhabitants. In each village, 20-22 households took part. After this first phase of interview, three quarterly follow-ups were carried out in each interviewed households each 3 months with the questionnaire of the section C. Nutrient Analysis After the first phase of the interviews, a list of forest food consumed was selected for nutrient analysis. At the second phase, the selected fruits were collected. The mature fresh fruits and nuts per species, were sampled from different points and collected in a perforated plastic container, labeled and kept in an ice box container and transported to the laboratory at Yaoundé I University in Cameroon for analyses. At the laboratory, the samples were washed thoroughly with deionized water and conserved in a refrigerator at 4°C. For each fruit species, two fruits out of the three per village were randomly selected for edible pulp extraction. The pulp from the fruits and nuts were mashed in a blender. Extracted edible pulps per species were divided into two sub samples. For the first sub sample, the extracted fresh pulp was immediately sealed in clean polyethylene bags and conserved at −20°C and later used for vitamin, bioactive compound and anti-nutrient analysis, while the other sub sample was analyzed for moisture content. The dried samples were conserved for proximate analysis.