Assessment of energy intake

Feeding the world healthily: the challenge of measuring the effects of agriculture on health

“…Similarly, FBS data on fruit and vegetable availability in 15 countries (mostly high income) have been reported to substantially over-estimate actual consumption, although the degree of overestimation varied widely (Pomerleau et al 2003). It has been suggested that as the food system develops and becomes more complex, the discrepancy between dietary intake and food availability data increases due to a lack of information at the manufacturing level as well as the variations in waste (FAO 1983;Dowler & Ok Seo 1985;Sekula et al 1991).…”

“…As countries progress through economic and nutrition transitions, with a greater proportion of the diet becoming processed foods, the food system becomes increasingly complex, and traditional calculations of commodity availability are a poor proxy for consumption patterns of nutrients (Dowler & Ok Seo 1985). A thorough understanding of the impact of the changing food system on health will therefore require information on the combining, mixing and removing of nutrients during the manufacturing of processed products (FAO 2004) and/or detailed information on nutritional intakes.…”

Measuring meat consumption with recommendations towards more sustainability

“…The procedure takes up methodological claims raised in scientific literature. DOWLER and SEO (1985) argued that mass flows along food value chains need to be captured to derive human consumption of specific foods. SERRA-MAJEM (2001) andNASKA et al (2009) asked to consider consumer waste when calculating human food consumption.…”

“…As mentioned by DOWLER and SEO (1985), the notion of food consumption depends on the scientist's objective. Authors and policy makers therefore need to clarifying whether they refer to the actually ingested quantity (meat intake), the quantity intended for human consumption or the domestic meat supply.…”