The importance of food composition tables in the evaluation of risk of vitamin A deficiency.

One hundred and ninety-eight 24h-recall questionnaires from pregnant attendees of the public health services in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, were analyzed, using 5 different Food Composition Tables. The differences in calculated intakes were as high as 88% (793 to 1494 mu gRE). The differences were significant at the 5% level using Fishers test. The INCAP table was considered more adequate because it gives more attention to the different conversion factors for carotenoids. However, the INCAP Table does not include several foods frequently consumed in Brazil, neither does it show values for culinary preparations and industrialized foods. This study shows that there is a need to improve the tools to evaluate vitamin A intake if we wish to assess nutritional risk in populations.