Food Composition Tables in Southeast Asia: The Contribution of the SMILING Project

P.j.m Hulshof ,Le Hong Dung,Nazarina Nazarudin,Esmée L Doets ,Siti Muslimatun,Sengchanh Kounnavong,Abas Basuni Jahari ,Sri Prihatini,Alida Melse‐Boonstra ,Uraiporn Chittchang,Verena Nowak,Lucy Elburg,Tran Thi Lua,Manithong Vonglokham,Lê Thị Bạch ,Sok Seyha,Otte Santika,Nipa Rojroongwasinkul,Umi Famida,Touch Bunthang,Inge D Brouwer

doi:10.1007/s10995-018-2528-8

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.

Highlights

Information on the composition of foods is fundamental for programmes monitoring adequacy of dietary intake, research linking diet to health and disease, planning and prescription, education and food security (Elmadfa and Meyer 2010)
Food composition tables (FCT) in the Southeast Asian (SEA) countries involved in the SMILING consortium, were expected to differ in many aspects
Differences between the food composition tables were expected at several levels: (1) at the food level, (2) at the nutrient level, (3) at the value level, and (4) at the format and data base management level (Deharveng et al 1999)

Summary

Introduction

Information on the composition of foods is fundamental for programmes monitoring adequacy of dietary intake, research linking diet to health and disease, planning and prescription, education and food security (Elmadfa and Meyer 2010). Inadequate food composition data may lead to a failure in understanding the relationship between nutrient intake and health, or result in inappropriate, inefficient interventions to improve micronutrient status (Burlingame 2003; Harrison 2004) This link can be illustrated by the UNICEF conceptual framework that captures the multifactorial causality of undernutrition (UNICEF 2013). The SMILING initiative was a transnational collaboration of research and implementation institutions in five countries in Southeast Asia, namely, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos PDR, Thailand and Vietnam, with European partners, to support the application of state-of-the-art knowledge to alleviate malnutrition in Southeast Asia These Southeast Asian countries represent a range of social and economic development, extent of malnutrition, and differ in their capacity and success in nutrition improvement efforts. 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

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Conclusion