Quality assessment and update of food

composition tables on selected foods and

nutrients for South East Asia

E Doets, P Hulshof, N Rojroongwasinkul, L Dung, U Fahmida, M Vonglokham, K Kuong, L Elburg, I Brouwer, A Melse-Boonstra

13 September 2013, IFDC, Granada

SMILING

Sustainable Micronutrient Interventions to controL deficiencies and Improve Nutritional status and General health in Asia

The SMILING project will produce a new, feasible and sustainable nutrition intervention agenda:

● country-specific

● directed to women of reproductive age and young children <2 y

Rationale

Nutritional deficiencies should preferably be combated with nutritious foods

High quality data on the nutritional composition of foods are essential to design better diets

Food Composition Tables (FCT) are available in South East Asian (SEA) countries, but:

● Quality of the data need to be assessed

● Nutrient data not complete

SMILING challenges

To assess quality of national FC data, with special emphasis on key foods and key macro- & micronutrients;

To develop capacity in SEA to create internationally recognized, high quality FCT;

To provide an updated high quality FCT for each SEA country that includes selected food items and nutrients and anti-nutrients.

Need for priorities and clear roadmap

describing standardized approaches

Partners in South East Asia

Selection of nutrients to be included in

country-specific FCTs

Based on country-specific data regarding prevalence of deficiencies and health related problems:

● Macronutrients: energy, protein, total fat, carbohydrates

● Micronutrients: Iron, zinc, calcium, vit. A, carotenoids, vit. D, vit. C, vit. B1, vit. B2, vit. B3, vit. B6, folate, vit. B12

Selection of foods to be included in

country-specific FCTs

Based on food consumption data from children <2 y and women of reproductive age

Consumed by >5-10% of population or good sources of nutrients of concern

SEA country Number of foods

Laos 140

Cambodia 90

Thailand 142

Vietnam 164

Indonesia 174

Training in Hanoi Vietnam (April, 2012)

Build general capacity in the field of FCTs

Align procedures to select foods for QA & update

Align procedures for data checking and QA of selected foods and nutrients

Guidelines and workplan for QA and update

of national FCTs (Hulshof et al.)

Discussed and practiced with both external

facilitators and workshop participants

consensus document

Steps 1-3 in QA and update

Step 1: Completion of selected foods with nutrient data

● Based on: 1-analytical reports, 2-scientific publications,

3-regional FCTs and 4-non-regional FCTs

Step 2: Data check on nutrient data of selected foods

● INFOODS guidelines: check on food identification, components, documentation

Step 3: Selection of key foods for QA

● based on contribution to nutrient intake (top 10) and nutrient density (top 3)

Step 4: EuroFIR QA procedure

QA based on 7 categories:

1. Food description

2. Component identification

3. Sampling plan

4. No. of analytical samples

5. Sample handling

6. Sample analysis

7. Analytical quality control

Evaluation requires

documentation on

background nutrient values,

however not always

available!

Experiences:

1. Completion of FCT with nutrient data

Main sources used for updates:

● Laboratory data Cambodia (fish); Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia

● FCTs ASEAN, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia

● USDA

Composition data on Vit D, folate, vit B6 & vit B12 are often not available, especially for local foods

Additional guidance: how to proceed when documented data on nutrients or specific foods (e.g. local foods) are missing undocumented data or imputation

Experiences:

2. Data check using INFOODS guidelines

Very important, especially when borrowing data from multiple sources comparability of foods

Time consuming especially for non-experienced personnel

Frequently reported difficulties

● Food description → specifications

● Definition carbohydrates → available versus total

● Significant values, decimals

Experiences 3. QA using EuroFIR guidelines

Ca Fe Zn B1 B2 B6 B12 Fol Vit A Vit C

Cambodia

(3.4-5.1) 4.3 4.7 4.3 4.5 4.7 4.2 4.3 4.7 4.5 4.6

Thailand

(5.7-9.2) 7.6 7 7.6 7.3 7.9 7.2 7.3 7.3 8.2 8.0

Vietnam

(6.1-9.4) 6.6 6.4 6.4 6.5 6.5 n.a. n.a. n.a. 6.4 6.7

Laos

(no QA) n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a.

Indonesia

(2.6-8.7) 5.6 6.1 5.9 5.2 6.6 6.6 n.a. n.a. 5.6 4.1

Overall….

Limited nutrient data on local food items required labor-intensive

search actions to impute nutrient values from regional and non-

regional sources (folate, vitamin D, niacin, B6 and B12)

Finding documentation for missing data and for quality

assessment was frustrating

Time span for complex food composition tasks is short in a

project with many competing demands

Sound food composition work requires experience and expertise

To conclude

5 National new/updated FCT’s

Feeling for quality of data

Lessons for future and priority for research

There is an urgent need for high-quality composition data on South-East Asian foods, with proper documentation of their data origin

Thanks for your attention!

http://www.nutrition-smiling.eu/

EU FP 7 Framework Grant Agreement number 289616