Comparison of Results of Average Daily Diet Composition Calculated According to FRI-FAO Programme “ALIMENTA”, Polish Programme “FOOD2” and Results of Chemical Analysis

One of the goals of CEECFOODS network activities is building up the subregional food composition database. The need for systems and equipment to manage and exchange data eletronically requires software that can link a variety of systems and increase the efficient management and dissemination of data on food composition. One such software is the FAO programme ALIMENTA. During the CEECFOODS Steering Committee Meeting in Bratislava in November 1998, ALIMENTA was submitted to CEECFOODS members for evaluation. In Poland in 1998 a new corrected database of 610 food products with 77 nutrients plus energy value was worked out. This database is connected with software programme FOOD2. The goal of this work was to recognize the usefulness of ALIMENTA and FOOD2 for the above purposes. The composition of the five Polish daily diets: R1 — blue-collar workers, low income, NR1 — white-collar workers, low income, R2 — blue-collar workers, medium income NR2 — white-collar workers, medium income, and NZ — unemployed, were analysed by ALIMENTA, FOOD2 and chemical analysis. The diets were reconstructed in the laboratory using typical technological processes from 80 food products according to survey data from the household budgets reported by the Polish Central Statistical Bureau.