[Food consumption of the population. Trends followed via telephone interviews]

This study aimed at establishing and evaluating a simple method for surveilling trends in consumption of 10 nutritionally important foods. The method is based on food frequency questions combined with questions on the previous days intake, collected through telephone interviews. Participants (461 men, 546 women, 15-60+ yrs) came from a population sample. Between 22 and 69% consumed the foods in question as frequently as prescribed by the Danish food recommendations (lowest for fish and for vegetables, highest for potatoes/rice/pasta). Characteristic sex and age differences were observed, similar to findings from traditional, quantitative food surveys in Denmark. The food frequency results were confirmed by results from the previous day's intake. Crossing of frequencies for different foods gave additional information on consumption patterns. The results indicate that this very simple method may be a useful supplement to traditional quantitative dietary surveys for surveilling trends in food consumption. The Danish Nutrition Council therefore aims at doing similar surveys every other year.