Adapting an international food composition table for use in rural Kenya

The objective of this project was to adapt an existing international food composition table, the International Minilist (IML), and related databases, for use in estimating dietary intakes for a study in Embu, Kenya in 1998–2001. The IML, developed as part of the WorldFood Dietary Assessment System in 1988–1992, contains 195 basic food ingredients that are representative of ingredients consumed in many developing countries. We reviewed the IML, as well as ancillary databases, to determine if updates were necessary. A new database containing food density information (g/mL) and weights of common household measures was created. We did not identify new food items that needed to be added to the IML for this study, in part because the basic foods consumed have changed little over the past 10 years. However, the presence of new or reformulated commercial products required several updates to the file which links Embu food ingredients to IML food ingredients. The activity of provitamin A carotenoids was reduced by 50% to agree with the lower conversion factors currently recommended. We conclude that starting with an international table such as the IML can simplify the task of estimating intakes in developing countries which do not have a comprehensive food composition table.