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 attend ees of the public health services in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, were analyzed, using 5 different Food Composition Tables. The differences in calculated i ntakes were as high as 88% (793 to 1494 mu gRE). The differences were signi ficant at the 5% level using Fishers test. The INCAP table was considered m ore adequate because it gives more attention to the different conversion fa ctors for carotenoids. However, the INCAP Table does not include several fo ods frequently consumed in Brazil, neither does it show values for culinary preparations and industrialized foods. This study shows that there is a ne ed to improve the tools to evaluate vitamin A intake if we wish to assess n utritional risk in populations.