Food Composition Tables in Southeast Asia: The Contribution of the SMILING Project
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Food Composition Tables in Southeast Asia: The Contribution of the SMILING Project Paul Hulshof1 · Esmee Doets2 · Sok Seyha3 · Touch Bunthang3 · Manithong Vonglokham4 · Sengchanh Kounnavong4 · Umi Famida5 · Siti Muslimatun5 · Otte Santika5 · Sri Prihatini6 · Nazarina Nazarudin6 · Abas Jahari6 · Nipa Rojroongwasinkul7 · Uraiporn Chittchang7 · Le Bach Mai8 · Le Hong Dung8 · Tran Thi Lua8 · Verena Nowak9 · Lucy Elburg1 · Alida Melse‑Boonstra1 · Inge Brouwer1
© The Author(s) 2018
Abstract Objectives Food composition data are key for many nutrition related activities in research, planning and policy. Combatting micronutrient malnutrition among women and young children using sustainable food based approaches, as aimed at in the SMILING project, requires high quality food composition data. Methods In order to develop capacity and to align procedures for establishing, updating and assessing the quality of key nutrient data in the food composition tables in Southeast Asia, a detailed roadmap was developed to identify and propose steps for this. This included a training workshop to build capacity in the field of food composition data, and alignment of procedures for selecting foods and nutrients to be included for quality assessment, and update of country specific food composition tables. The SEA partners in the SMILING project finalised a country specific food composition table (FCT) with updated compositional data on selected foods and nutrients considered key for designing nutrient dense and optimal diets for the target groups. Results Between 140 and 175 foods were selected for inclusion in the country specific FCTs. Key-nutrients were: energy, protein, total fat, carbohydrates, iron, zinc, (pro-)-vitamin A, folate, calcium, vitamin D, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, vitamin B3, vitamin B6, vitamin B12 and vitamin C. A detailed quality assessment on 13 key-foods per nutrient was performed using international guidelines. Nutrient data for specific local food items were often unavailable and data on folate, vitamin B12 and vitamin B6 contents were mostly missing. For many foods, documentation was not available, thereby complicating an in-depth quality assessment. Despite these limitations, the SMILING project offered a unique opportunity to increase awareness of the importance of high quality well documented food composition data. Conclusion for Practise The self-reported data quality demonstrated that there is considerable room for improvement of the nutrient data quality in some countries. In addition, investment in sustainable capacity development and an urgent need to produce and document high quality data on the micronutrient composition of especially local foods is required. Keywords Food composition · SMILING project · Nutrient data · Capacity building · Data quality
* Paul Hulshof [email protected] 1
Division of Human Nutrition, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 17, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands
Wageningen Food & Biobased Research, Wageningen University and Research Centre, Wageningen, The Netherlands
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