National Food Survey

Purified diets analysed over many years have indicated that the following elements are found in our diet oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, sodium, potassium, chlorine, sulfur, iodine, zinc, copper, selenium, manganese, molybdenum, vanadium, fluorine, cobalt, chromium, nickel, silica, aluminium, tin, and possibly traces of arsenic, are essential or beneficial to human health. 

The bio-availabilities of these elements through the gastrointestinal tract vary markedly. Molybdenum, iodine, fluorine, and arsenic are apparently highly bio-available, whereas medium uptake occurs with haem iron, cobalt, zinc, chromium in the presence of a glucose tolerance factor, selenium, either as selenate or as organo selenium compounds, whereas only low bio-availability is experienced with non-haem iron, 

In terms of advocating the total amounts and balance of nutrients required for the standard diet, the National Advisory Committee on Nutrition Education was set up in the UK in 1979 and the fourth draft 

Dietary constituent 1983 intake Risk factors Recommended intake (NACNE) 

Energy High intake— obesity Sufficient to maintain  

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MAFF (Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries), Household Food Consumption and Expenditure. Annual Report of the National Food Survey Committee. London HMSO, 1996. 

The UK Total Diet Study (TDS) relies on nationally representative information about the average food consumption by individual households researched in the UK National Food Survey (based on a survey of approximately 7000 households).2,3 Typical diets are constructed based on these data. Foodstuffs are purchased from retail outlets, then prepared and cooked in the normal manner. The individual foodstuffs are then usually combined into various groups of similar foods - for example cereals, green vegetables and fish - in the proportions eaten on average by consumers. Population dietary exposures can then be calculated using data from the TDS samples. 

Ministry of agriculture. Househid food consumption and expenditure. Annual reports of the national Food Survey committee. London HMSO 1990, 1961-90. 

Ritson, C. and Hutchins, R. (1991) The consumption revolution. In Slater, J.M. (ed.) Fifty Years of the National Food Survey. The Stationery Office, London. UK, pp. 35-46. 

On that basis the average British diet does meet all requirements since, according to the National Food Survey, the nutrients available on a family basis from foods purchased are greatly in excess of RDI (except for iron, which approximates to RDI). The lowest of these values is about 130 % RDI for thiamin and riboflavin, and near 200 % for protein, calcium, niacin equivalents and vitamin A. 

In addition to their studies of individuals, these authors also calculated dietary fibre intakes and sources using the National Food Survey ", and found very close agreement between the two sets of data. 

Morris s dietary survey was carried out some years ago and suggests that we obtained a higher proportion of our dietary fibre intakes from cereals then, compared with the present. This fact is borne out by the work of Southgate et al who have calculated dietary fibre intakes in the UK from the National Food Survey and... 

A number of countries have attempted to assess intakes of trans fatty acids (Table 3). Reliable intake data are available for the UK, based on a 7-day weighed intake of foods eaten both inside and outside the home, for 2000 adults aged 16-64years (Table 3). Data from the UK National Food Survey, which does not include food eaten outside the home. 

Source National Food Survey (1987) Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. 

Linseisen, J., Radtke, J., and Wolfram, G., Flavonoid intake of adults in a Bavarian subgroup of the national food consumption survey, Z. Ernahrungswiss., 36, 403, 1997. 

The intake values cited for muscle and liver come from a National Food Consumption Survey conducted by the Market Research Corporation of America (MRCA) in 1977-1978. 

Bureau of Rural Sciences, National Residue Survey 1997 Results, Austraha (1998). E. Neidert, and P.W. Saschenbrecker, in Residues of Veterinary Drugs in Food, Proc. Euroresidue III Conf., Veldhoven, 1996 (N. Haagsma and A. Ruiter, Eds.), Fac. Vet. Med., Univ. Utrecht, The Netherlands, p. 185 (1996). 

Australian Bureau of Statistics (1995). National Nutrition Survey Foods Eaten, Canberra, Australia. 

Interest in reduced-acid citrus juices originated in the early 1960 s when Kilbum and Drager (4) employed electodialysis tc remove citrate ions from juice. The Florida Department of Citrus tested the reduced-acid concept with consumers at the New York World s Fair in 1965, and followed this test with a national consumer survey in 1972. The Coca-Cola Company Foods Division... 

The FDA has also performed its Total Diet Study annually since 1961. This study involves a market basket collection of foods from four chosen geographical regions and three cities in each region per year. Each market basket is comprised of 261 different food samples and the foods are prepared for table-ready consumption prior to analysis. Estimates of daily exposures of population subgroups to pesticide residues in the diet are attained by considering the results of the Total Diet Study samples and food consumption estimates obtained from national food consumption surveys (FDA, 2000). 

In the eighties and early nineties, the USEPA evaluated dietary risk with an analysis method known as the Dietary Risk Evaluation System (DRES) (USEPA, 1991), which was based on the USDA s 1977 to 1978 National Food Consumption Survey. Consequently, dietary exposure assessments became genetically referred to as DRES analyses. Currently, the USEPA is using the Dietary Exposure Evaluation Model (DEEM , Version 7.87) (Exponent, 2000), which allows exposure to be calculated from 1994 to 1996 CSFII along with the 1998 supplemental children s survey information. 

USDA (1983). Human Nutrition Information Service (HNIS). Consumer Nutrition Division. Food Intakes Individuals in 48 States, Year 1977-1978. National Food Consumption Survey, 1977-1978, Report No. 1-1. 

Australian foods are monitored on the basis of the National Residue Surveys and Australian Market Basket Surveys (now Total Dietary Survey). Only a low percentage of OCP residues have been detected in animal fats since 1996 and none in grains since 1992. Elevated intakes of residues (e.g. dieldrin and HCB) occurred in the early 1970s, which have since declined at approximately first-order kinetics to much lower and generally acceptable levels of intake in the 1990s. 

NFA, 1992. The 1992 Australian Market Basket Survey. National Food Authority. Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra. 

In the UK, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food and the Department of Health have conducted four sets of food consumption surveys between 1983 and 1997. These surveys make up the UK s National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) program. The UK has conducted surveys for infants [15], schoolchildren [16], adults [17], and most recently, yoimg people [18]. The food consumption information from these surveys is used for the various UK dietary exposure models, including the TMDI and the NESTI calculations. Elsewhere in the EU, dietary risk assessments may be based upon national food consultation surveys, such as the German data [20], or upon the regional diets... 

USDA (2000) CD-ROM CSFII 1994-96, 1998 Data Set, National Technical Information Service Accession number PB2000-500027. Food Survey Research Group, Agricultural Research Service (ARS), United States Department of Agriculture. Dataset... 

An important step in assuring the safety of new food ingredients, such as fat substitutes, is the calculation of the level of exposure to an individual if the product is approved for use. This step is referred to as exposure assessment (15). It is necessary to use an exposure assessment model that is based on food consumption data from national probability surveys. These surveys indicate both the frequency of consumption and the serving size of individual foods. When estimated exposure levels proved to be higher than safety data, they can be lowered by limiting product content or the categories of food in which the product may be used (15). 

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