274 Introduction to Human Nutrition
increased cost and nonresponse associated with such
a long study period. For the purpose of food safety
assessment an approach that combines a 3 day food
intake record with a food frequency questionnaire has
the potential to give estimates for the intake of con-
sumers that are similar to those obtained from 14 day
records.
10.11 Perspectives on the future
It is unlikely that either the measurement or the eval-
uation of food intake will become less complex in
future. If anything, the reverse is likely to be true given
the increasing diversity in the food supply and the
increasing recognition of the need to be able to assess
accurately not only the intake of foods and nutrients
but also the intake of nonnutrient constituents of
foods and dietary supplements. While the existence of
errors in association with measurements of food
intake is now widely appreciated, much work still
remains to be done in this area.
Other aspects of food intake measurement that also
require further development in the immediate future
are likely to include the following.
As all direct methods of food intake measurement
involve interaction between investigators and indi-
viduals and our understanding of the cognitive aspects
of these interactions is still limited, more work is
needed to improve the communications aspect of
dietary assessment.
As the food supply becomes more complex indi-
viduals will no longer be able to describe the foods
they have eaten in adequate detail unless technologi-
cal developments such as the use of barcodes and
similar systems of food identifi cation become an inte-
gral part of dietary assessment.
As the number of food constituents of interest, in
relation to health, increases it is important that appro-
priate physiological and biochemical markers are also
developed for these constituents, as well as for the
nutrient constituents of foods.
Finally, since food intake data serve no useful
purpose unless they can be appropriately evaluated
it is essential that dietary studies include suffi cient
ancillary information to allow this to occur. This
means routinely collecting information not only on
age, gender, body size, and physiological status, but
also on key aspects of lifestyle such as physical activity
and the consumption of nonfood items such as
supplements (both nutrient and nonnutrient) and
drugs (both social and medicinal).Acknowledgment
This chapter has been revised and updated by Una E
MacIntyre based on the original chapter by Ingrid HE
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