Amid rising food insecurity and hunger in Africa’s most populous country Nigeria, a report says jollof rice and efo riro are Nigerians’ most popular lunchtime dishes.

Pyszne.pl, the largest food website in Poland, drew its inference after examining over 3 million restaurant reviews from 151 different countries across the globe.

The food agency sought to find out the most dominating dishes served at lunchtime in the selected countries, using colour pallets to describe each country’s typical lunchtime meal selections.

For Nigeria, Pyzne.pl used red, yellow, green and beige to portray jollof rice and efo riro, which according to the researcher, are likely to be frequent on the lunchtime items in Nigeria.

“Nigeria’s food colour palette is made up of warm tones such as red and yellow as well as green and beige.

“Their most popular lunchtime dishes are jollof rice and efo riro, both of which use a stew-like base to build the dish contributing to the country’s red and yellow tones. The spinach and meat in efo riro and suya also contributes to the overall palette,” Pyszne.pl in the report said.

The study also placed jollof rice as the most preferred lunchtime meal amongst Nigeriens and Liberians.

“In Liberia, Niger and Nigeria, jollof rice is likely to be one of the lunch items,” Pyszne.pl in the report said.

Shawarma, a snack popular amongst Nigerians, was identified in the study as one of the two preferred lunchtime meals amongst Egyptians.

“In Egypt, hummus and shawarma are often eaten for lunch (sometimes as part of one meal),” Pyszne.pl added.

The report comes as food prices continue to soar despite consecutive drops in the country’s inflation rate.

In August, Peoples Gazette reported that the composite food index rose by 21.03 per cent in July, implying that food prices rose in July.

However, the National Bureau of Statistics said the rise in the food index was due to increases in milk price, cheese and eggs, coffee, tea and cocoa, vegetables, bread and cereals, soft drinks, and meat.