Short Communication: Development of a food composition table to analyze Senegalese food expenditure data

Household Consumption and Expenditure Surveys (HCES) are increasingly used to estimate the potential of food fortification programs. Senegal’s latest HCES, Enquête de Suivi de la Pauvreté au Sénégal, was completed in 2011. As no Senegalese food composition table exists, one had to be constructed to analyze Senegal’s HCES, which contains 50 foods or food groups. These are millet, sorghum, maize, fonio, millet porridge, whole rice, broken rice, red rice, groundnut, peanut paste, groundnut paste, palm oil, vegetable oil, groundnut oil, soya oil, tomato paste, cabbage, tomato, onion, dried cowpea, bouillon cube, mango, fried egg sandwich, salt, herring, smoked catfish, dried whitefish, beef, goat, lamb, pork, chicken, sugar, coffee bean, instant coffee, green tea, hibiscus tea, Coca Cola, baobab fruit, beer, baguette, croissant, water biscuit, yoghurt, powder milk, milk, and gruyere cheese. A food composition table was constructed with 13 micronutrients (biotin, folate, iodine, iron, niacin, pantothenic acid, riboflavin, thiamin, vitamin A, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, vitamin D, and zinc) for the 50 food items in the Household Consumption and Expenditure Survey. Nutrient information was collected from the Table de Composition des Aliments d'Afrique de l'Ouest, United States Department of Agriculture’s Food Composition Databases, Frida Fooddata, several journals, and books. In the survey, there were food groups such as alcoholic beverages that needed to be reclassified as a specific food, such as beer, to construct the food composition table. To accomplish this, food balance sheet data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations were used as well as information from a Senegalese key informant. To consider the potential impact of food fortification on apparent nutrient intakes, nutrient information for ten fortified foods (bouillon cube, salt, palm oil, vegetable oil, groundnut oil, soya oil, and four wheat flour-containing foods such as baguette, croissant, water biscuit, and fried egg sandwich) were also included in the food composition table. With the newly developed Senegalese food composition table, it is possible to analyze Senegal’s 2011 HCES.Keywords: Micronutrients, Nutrient Database, West Africa, Household Income and Expenditure Survey, Senega