I agree with the writer from the research unit “Food and nutrition research in the global South” (Nutripass) on Jan. 29 that in reviewing the available evidence, the Team should consider the type and relevance of dietary assessment metrics used, their validation, comparability and standardization, and the unit of analysis to which they were applied. Many different types of dietary assessment metrics have been developed and used in research, yet there is a paucity of standardized and valid indicators that can be used at national and global level to understand dietary consumption and patterns.
Although Goal 2 of the SDGs is to “end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round”, it appears that there are no proposed indicators to measure characteristics of the diet. Likewise, there is only one (process) indicator in the WHA Nutrition Targets framework that addresses diet –proportion of children aged 6-23 months who receive a minimum acceptable diet.
An important focus of the HLPE Report will be on food consumption and diets of the entire population – including but not limited to traditionally identified vulnerable population groups. For this reason, the Report will provide an important opportunity to promote the development and application of standardized metrics for global monitoring and evaluation of food system interventions that assess nutritional adequacy of the food supply as well as the quality of diets of households and individuals. As pointed out by the Nutripass commenter, focus on individual intake is of utmost importance, as it is at this level that health and nutrition outcomes due to improved food systems will be observed.
There is currently great interest in developing proxy measures of diet quality that assess not only micronutrient adequacy but also consumption of foods associated with excess weight and diet-related chronic diseases. Developing these types of indicators for national and global monitoring will be a challenge given the incredible diversity of food systems, range of processed foods at low cost and the ability of farmers to produce, transport and store perishable foods. However, recognition by the Report of the need for valid and comparable indicators of individual dietary quality will be very important.
Terri BallardTerri Ballard