Consumptions data formats

Consumption data is often collected in 24-hour dietary recall studies and contains the food consumptions and consumption amounts for a number of individuals on a number of days. For each of the individuals, the bodyweight should be specified, and optionally also age, sex, and other properties may be recorded. If applicable, sampling weights may also be specified that can be used to correct the sample of individuals in the survey to a more representative sample of the targeted population. The consumption amounts are usually expressed in grams, but may also be expressed in alternative units of plates, cups, or spoons. Optionally, the uncertainty of food consumption quantifications can be specified, see Souverein et al. (2011).

Consumption surveys are described using three tables: FoodSurveys, Individuals, and Consumptions. Individuals are linked to food surveys using the survey code (idFoodSurvey), and consumptions are linked to individuals using the individual codes (idIndividual). The food codes used to identify the consumed foods should match with the codes provided by the foods entity definitions.

Download empty dataset template: Zipped CSV Excel

Food consumption surveys

The records of the food consumption surveys table contain the ids, names, descriptions, and other relevant metadata of consumption surveys.

Accepted table names: FoodConsumptionSurveys, ConsumptionSurveys, FoodSurveys, Surveys.

Table 25 Table definition for Food consumption surveys.
Name Type Description Aliases Required

idSurvey

AlphaNumeric (50)

Unique identification code of the food consumption survey.

idSurvey, idFoodSurvey, Survey, FoodSurvey, SurveyId, FoodSurveyId, Code, Id

Yes

Name

AlphaNumeric (100)

The name of the food consumption survey.

Name, SurveyName

No

Description

AlphaNumeric (200)

Description of the food consumption survey.

Description

No

Location

AlphaNumeric (50)

The location or country where survey is held. It is recommended to use ISO Alpha-2 country codes.

Location, Country

No

BodyWeightUnit

BodyWeightUnit

The unit of bodyweight of the individuals of the survey: kg (default) or g.

BodyWeightUnit, UnitBodyWeight, WeightIn

No

ConsumptionUnit

ConsumptionUnit

The unit of the use/consumption amounts of the consumptions of the survey: g (default) or kg or CustomUnit (see table food consumption quantifications table).

AmountUnit, UnitAmount, AmountUnit, ConsumptionUnit

No

StartDate

DateTime

The start date of the survey.

StartDate

No

EndDate

DateTime

The end date of the survey.

EndDate

No

NumberOfSurveyDays

Integer

The number of days each individual participated in the survey.

NumberOfSurveyDays, NDaysInSurvey

Yes

idPopulation

AlphaNumeric (50)

Unique identification code of the population.

IdPopulation, PopulationId

No

Individuals

The individuals of a survey are recorded in the Individuals table. Add additional properties like Region, Breastfeeding to further describe an individual. In table IndividualProperties, each property in the Individuals table is described (recommended way). Note that only those properties that are available in the Individuals table are used in module Populations, table Populations or PopulationIndividualPropertyValues to subset the individuals. This is only relevant when the UseData option in the population module is used.

Accepted table names: Individuals, SurveyIndividuals, ConsumptionSurveyIndividuals, FoodConsumptionSurveyIndividuals.

Table 26 Table definition for Individuals.
Name Type Description Aliases Required

idIndividual

AlphaNumeric (50)

Unique identification code of the individual.

idIndividual, IndividualId, Individual, Id

Yes

idFoodSurvey

AlphaNumeric (50)

The identification code / short name of survey.

idSurvey, idFoodSurvey, Survey, FoodSurvey, SurveyId, FoodSurveyId, SurveyCode

Yes

BodyWeight

Numeric

The body weight of the individual.

BodyWeight, Weight

No

SamplingWeight

Numeric

The sampling weight for an individual (default = 1).

SamplingWeight

No

NumberOfSurveyDays

Integer

The number of days the individual participated in the survey.

NumberOfSurveyDays, NumberOfDaysInSurvey, DaysInSurvey, NDaysInSurvey

No

Name

AlphaNumeric (100)

Name or label of the individual.

Name

No

Description

AlphaNumeric (200)

Additional description of the individual.

Description

No

Individual properties

Other individual properties can be added like the fields Age, Gender, Region etc. These properties are automatically parsed as co-factors or co-variables.

No

IndividualDays

The individuals and days in the survey are recorded in the individualDays table.

Accepted table names: IndividualDays, SurveyIndividualDays, ConsumptionSurveyIndividualDays, FoodConsumptionSurveyIndividualDays.

Table 27 Table definition for IndividualDays.
Name Type Description Aliases Required

idIndividual

AlphaNumeric (50)

The identification code of the individual.

idIndividual, IndividualId, Individual, Id

Yes

idDay

AlphaNumeric (50)

Identification code of the day of consumption, sequential number

idDay, DayId, Day, DayOfSurvey

Yes

SamplingDate

DateTime

The date of the consumption.

Date, SamplingDate, SurveyDate

No

Individual properties

This table is used to describe the properties used in the Populations or PopulationIndividualPropertyValues table characterising the population (table Populations) and/or the properties used in the Individuals table characterising an individual. Properties like Age, Gender, Region are describing an individual (PropertyLevel = Individual). Properties like Period (for populations) or Month (sampling date for an individual day) are describing an individual day (PropertyLevel = IndividualDay).

Accepted table names: IndividualProperties, IndividualProperty.

Table 28 Table definition for Individual properties.
Name Type Description Aliases Required

idIndividualProperty

AlphaNumeric (50)

The code of the property.

idIndividualProperty, IndividualPropertyId, IndividualProperty

Yes

Name

AlphaNumeric (100)

The name of the property.

Name

No

PropertyLevel

PropertyLevelType

The level of the property. This type follows a controlled terminology, with possible values: Individual or IndividualDay.

PropertyLevel, LevelProperty

No

Description

AlphaNumeric (200)

Description of the property.

Description

No

Type

IndividualPropertyType

This field specifies the type of the values of this individual property. This type follows a controlled terminology, with possible values: Boolean, Categorical (default), Numeric, Nonnegative, Integer, NonnegativeInteger, Month, Datetime, Gender.

Type

No

Individual property values

Not recommended. This table describes individual property values. Property values are describing an individual for properties like e.g. Region, Breastfeeding. The recommended way is to add these columns as additional columns in the Individuals table. In table IndividualProperties, each property in the IndividualPropertyValues table is described.

Accepted table names: IndividualPropertyValues, IndividualPropertyValue.

Table 29 Table definition for Individual property values.
Name Type Description Aliases Required

idIndividual

AlphaNumeric (50)

The identification number of the Individual.

Id

Yes

PropertyName

AlphaNumeric (50)

The name of the property.

Name

Yes

TextValue

AlphaNumeric (50)

The value of the property as text value.

No

DoubleValue

Numeric

The value of the property as number.

No

Consumptions

The individual consumptions are recorded in the consumptions table.

Accepted table names: FoodConsumptions, FoodConsumption, Consumptions, Consumption.

Table 30 Table definition for Consumptions.
Name Type Description Aliases Required

idIndividual

AlphaNumeric (50)

The unique identification code of the consumer (individual).

idIndividual, IndividualId, Individual

Yes

idFood

AlphaNumeric (50)

The food code (food as eaten code).

idFood, Food, FoodId, FoodConsumed, FoodAsEaten

Yes

Facets

AlphaNumeric

The codes of the facets/treatments recorded for this consumption. Multiple treatments are separated by a ‘$’.

Treatments, Treatment, Facets

No

idUnit

AlphaNumeric (50)

Identification code of the unit in which the food is consumed (e.g. plate, cup, spoon).

idUnit, Unit, UnitId

No

idDay

AlphaNumeric (25)

Identification code of the day of consumption, sequential number

idDay, DayId, Day, DayOfSurvey

Yes

idMeal

AlphaNumeric (25)

Identification code of the meal (eating occasion within a day).

idMeal, MealId, Meal

No

Amount

Numeric

The consumed portion of food in g (default) or kg or quantity of a plate, cup, spoon. Days without consumptions are not recorded.

Amount, AmountConsumed

Yes