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Food availability and consumption at national, household and individual levels: implications for food-based dietary guidelines development

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2001

Lluís Serra-Majem
Lluís Serra-Majem*
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Sciences, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, P.O. Box 500, 35080 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, & Community Nutrition Research Group. Barcelona Science Park, University of Barcelona, Spain
*
*Corresponding author: Email lserra@cicei.ulpgc.es
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Abstract

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The three levels of dietary data national, household and individual, are analysed and compared, and their use and misuse in FBDG development and monitoring are discussed. Food Balance Sheets (FBS) estimate the national availability of foods, and are an appropriate tool to evaluate food policies; they tend to overestimate food consumption, particularly for those foods with higher waste. Household Budget Surveys (HBS) estimate the household availability of foods, and are useful to evaluate dietary family interventions. Individual Dietary Surveys (IDS) evaluate individual food and nutrient intake and provide a unique estimation of nutritional status and are the best tool for planning FBDG; however, they are expensive and may be biased towards underreporting.

The understanding of the relationship between the different levels of food information is very important when formulating, evaluating and monitoring a nutrition policy in a country or region.

Keywords

Food dataNutritional assessmentFood consumptionFood availability
Type
Research Article
Information
Public Health Nutrition , Volume 4 , Issue 2b , April 2001 , pp. 673 - 676
Copyright
Copyright © CABI Publishing 2001

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