Table 2. Overview of nutrient intake data sources for the various countries.

Country	Survey	Year of data collection	Nutrients	Study population	n	Dietary assessment method
Netherlands	National Survey [15], [19]	1998	All	All ages	5958	2 day dietary record
Greece	Greek Epic study [29]	1994–1999	Energy & SAFA	Adults aged 20–86	20822	Food frequency questionnaire (FFQ)
	Transfair study [28]	1995	TFA	Adults aged 23–64	248	1 day 24 h recall
	Survey university of Crete [30]	1989–2001	Sodium & fibre	Medical students aged 20–24	951	1 day 24 h recall
Spain	Intersalt study [26]	1986	Sodium	Adults aged 20–59	400	24 h urinary sodium excretion
	Spanish Food panel [27]	2006	Energy & fibre	HouseholdsCatering establishmentsInstitutions	6000700200	Bar code scanner
	Transfair study [28]	1991	SAFA & TFA	All aged 1–74	3000	7 day dietary record on household level
US	National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) [21]	1999–2000	Energy, sodium & SAFA	All ages	8604	1 day 24 h recall
	NHANES III [22]	1988–1994	Added sugar	All ages	25820	1 day 24 h recall
	Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals (CSFII) [22]	(1994–1996, 1998)	Fibre	All ages	21035	1 day 24 h recall
China	National Survey [24]	2002	Energy, sodium & fibre	Urban population, all ages	21103	3 day 24 h recall; food weighted record on household level
	INTERMAP study [25]	1997–1999	SAFA & TFA	Adults aged 40–59	839	4 day 24 h recall
Israel	National Survey [23]	1999–2001	Energy, SAFA, sodium & fibre	Jews and Arabs (urban and rural) aged 25–60	3246	1 day 24 h recall
South Africa	Secondary analysis of various surveys [31]	1983–2000	Energy	All aged 10+	> 5000	1 day 24 h recall, FFQ
	Study on diet and blood pressure [34]	2002	Sodium	Adults aged 20–65 black urban	110	24 h urinary sodium excretion
	THUSA study [32]	1996–1998	SAFA, TFA & fibre	Women aged 15–80	1008	FFQ

SAFA: saturated fatty acid; TFA: trans fatty acid; n: number of subjects; FFQ: food frequency questionnaire.