Intake of vitamins B-1, B-2, C, A and E estimated on the basis of analysisof weekly diets of 19 Finnish hospitals

Contents of vitamins B-1, B-2, C, A and E were determined and intakes of th ese vitamins calculated in homogenized weekly diets collected from 19 centr al hospitals throughout Finland. In addition, the possibility of using the hospital diet data to estimate the level of average daily vitamin intake in Finland was evaluated. This was facilitated by comparing the daily food co nsumption in hospitals with the average daily food consumption in Finland a nd assessing the average vitamin intake of Finnish people accordingly. Inta kes of vitamins A, B-2 and C (1600 RE, 2.9 mg and 148.9 mg day(-1), respect ively) exceeded the recommendations for hospital diets. On the other hand, mean intakes of vitamins E and B-1 (8.9 and 1.0 mg day(-1), respectively) w ere slightly below the recommendations. Comparison of daily food consumptio n from hospital diets with the average daily food consumption in Finland su ggests that average Finnish intakes of vitamins B-1 and E are close to the intake values obtained from the hospital diets studied.