Swedish Market Basket Survey 2015 – per capita-based analysis of nutrients and toxic compounds in market baskets and assessment of benefit or risk

<p>The National Food Agency (NFA) has repeatedly conducted market basket (MB) studies, in which representative food samples from the Swedish market are analysed for nutrients and toxic compounds. By the use of food production and trade statistics, in combination with population statistics, per capita (populations mean) intakes of nutrients and chemicals from foods available on the Swedish market are estimated. One major aim of these studies is to obtain a systematic overview of average dietary intakes of nutrients and chemicals. The data can be used to estimate the Swedish population´s adherence to nutrient recommendations and the intake of potential toxic chemicals in relation to healthbased guidance values. Moreover, MB studies identify food groups that are major sources of nutrient and chemical intake. Since NFA have conducted four MB studies since 1999 temporal trends of per capita nutrient and chemical intake can be studied. MB studies can also give a first look at the contamination situation for chemicals that recently have been identified as potentially problematic food contaminants. The present study is based on food sampled during May-June 2015, thus the project name - Market Basket 2015.