Gaps in dietary-survey methodology in Western Europe

A national nutrition monitoring system, including regular dietary surveys of representative population samples exists in only a few Western European countries. Even though large surveys are carried out sporadically in most countries, variability in their objectives, population samples, methodology, and reporting limit their comparability. There are two main ways of building a survey program: either in connection with health status surveys or in connection with household budget surveys. Household budget surveys are the only possibility in many countries. However, the data collection method has to be modified from food-purchase recording to include proper description of all foods consumed by individuals during a certain time period. Comparability of food-composition data in software systems for nutrient conversion is another problem area.