Specialized food composition dataset for vitamin D content in foods based on European standards: Application to dietary intake assessment

A review of national nutrition surveys from 2000 to date, demonstrated high prevalence of vitamin D intakes below the EFSA Adequate Intake (AI) (<15 μg/d vitamin D) in adults across Europe. Dietary assessment and modelling are required to monitor efficacy and safety of ongoing strategic vitamin D fortification. To support these studies, a specialized vitamin D food composition dataset, based on EuroFIR standards, was compiled. The FoodEXplorer™ tool was used to retrieve well documented analytical data for vitamin D and arrange the data into two datasets - European (8 European countries, 981 data values) and US (1836 data values). Data were classified, using the LanguaL™, FoodEX2 and ODIN classification systems and ranked according to quality criteria. Significant differences in the content, quality of data values, missing data on vitamin D₂ and 25(OH)D₃ and documentation of analytical methods were observed. The dataset is available through the EuroFIR platform.