Global Dietary Surveillance: Data Gaps and Challenges

Background: Detailed information on global individual-level consumption patterns is imperative for informed policy making. However, such data are dispersed and incomplete. Objective: To review and discuss the methodologies, observed data availability, challenges, and opportunities pertaining to global dietary surveillance. Methods: This investigation provides an extensive review of global dietary assessment methodologies and challenges, including at the survey level, the dietary collection and assessment level, and the dietary data processing and analysis level. The focus is on nationally representative individual-level data, and additional types of dietary data, such as dietary biomarkers, household assessment, and food availability, are reviewed as alternatives. Practical guidance is provided to inform key decisions when designing dietary surveys and collecting, analyzing, and using dietary data. This article further identifies and describes existing global and regional dietary initiatives/data sets. Results: Harmonized and standardized primary individual-level dietary data collection, processing, and analysis worldwide are currently not available. Evaluation and decision-making should be based on best available data, that is, secondary nonharmonized yet to the extent possible, standardized individual-level dietary data. Existing initiatives differ substantially in methodologies, including survey design/representativeness, coverage, diet assessment, and dietary metric standardization and processing. Data gaps have been identified that were more profound for certain countries, certain dietary indicators across countries, population subgroups, representativeness, or time periods. Conclusions: Optimizing worldwide dietary habits to improve population health requires systematically identified and evaluated data on a continuing basis. Leveraging existing available dietary data and efforts is an indispensable prerequisite for informed priority setting targeting the intersections between diet and disease.

Adapting a standardised international 24 h dietary recall methodology (GloboDiet software) for research and dietary surveillance in Korea

During the past decades, a rapid nutritional transition has been observed along with economic growth in the Republic of Korea. Since this dramatic change in diet has been frequently associated with cancer and other non-communicable diseases, dietary monitoring is essential to understand the association. Benefiting from pre-existing standardised dietary methodologies, the present study aimed to evaluate the feasibility and describe the development of a Korean version of the international computerised 24 h dietary recall method (GloboDiet software) and its complementary tools, developed at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), WHO. Following established international Standard Operating Procedures and guidelines, about seventy common and country-specific databases on foods, recipes, dietary supplements, quantification methods and coefficients were customised and translated. The main results of the present study highlight the specific adaptations made to adapt the GloboDiet software for research and dietary surveillance in Korea. New (sub-) subgroups were added into the existing common food classification, and new descriptors were added to the facets to classify and describe specific Korean foods. Quantification methods were critically evaluated and adapted considering the foods and food packages available in the Korean market. Furthermore, a picture book of foods/dishes was prepared including new pictures and food portion sizes relevant to Korean diet. The development of the Korean version of GloboDiet demonstrated that it was possible to adapt the IARC-WHO international dietary tool to an Asian context without compromising its concept of standardisation and software structure. It, thus, confirms that this international dietary methodology, used so far only in Europe, is flexible and robust enough to be customised for other regions worldwide.