Vitamin intakes (A, E, C, carotenes) in a French institution: assessment by the duplicate-diet method

Duplicate meals of those eaten by 14 healthy young males (25-35 years of age), usual hospital diets for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, were collected for 5 consecutive days and freeze-dried. Fat-soluble vitamin (alpha-, beta-, gamma-, and delta-tocopherols, retinol, alpha- and beta-carotenes) and vitamin C contents were analyzed. Duplicate meals presented a wide range in vitamin levels. Large individual day-to-day variations were observed. The median daily intakes (n =70) of retinol equivalent (0.31 mg/day) and tocopherol equivalent (3.48 mg/day) were low. Only one third of the meals could provide sufficient amounts of fat-soluble vitamins, whereas vitamin C intakes were adequate (87.4 mg/day). So, fat-soluble recommended intakes were not supplied for most of the subjects in this study.