LAUSR

Abstract Objective: To develop a dish composition database (DCD) and assess its ability to estimate dietary intake. Design: The DCD was developed based on 16 d dietary records (DR). We aggregated all reported dishes into 128 dish codes and calculated mean food group and nutrient contents for each code. These data were used to calculate dietary intake in a different population that completed a 4 d DR. The estimated values were compared with those estimated using the standard food composition database (FCD) of Japan. Setting: Japan. Participants: A total 252 adults aged 31–81 years for the 16 d DR (3941 d in total) and 392 adults aged 20–69 years for the 4 d DR (1568 d in total) participated. Results: There were significant differences in median intakes between the DCD and the FCD for eighteen and twenty (of twenty-six) food groups and for twenty-nine and twenty-two (of forty-three) nutrients (including energy) in men and women, respectively. For food group intakes, Spearman correlation coefficients between the DCD and FCD ranged from 0·19 (animal fats) to 0·90 (fruits and alcoholic beverages) in men (median: 0·61) and from 0·25 (oils) to 0·89 (noodles) in women (median: 0·58). For nutrient intakes, the corresponding values ranged from 0·25 (retinol) to 0·90 (alcohol) in men (median: 0·60) and from 0·15 (retinol) to 0·74 (alcohol) in women (median: 0·53). Conclusions: Whereas it is difficult to accurately estimate absolute dietary intake values using the present DCD, it has acceptable ability to rank the intakes of many food groups and nutrients.