New Data for Vitamin D in Australian Foods of Animal Origin: Impact on Estimates of National Adult Vitamin D Intakes in 1995 and 2011-13

• Published in: Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition Vol. 24; no. 3; pp. 464 - 471
• Main Authors: Liu, Jerry, Arcot, Jayashree, Cunningham, Judy, Greenfield, Heather, Hsu, James, Padula, David, Strobel, Norbert, Fraser, David R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Australia HEC Press 01-09-2015
• Subjects: Adult; Animals; Australia; Cholecalciferol; Composition; Dairy Products - statistics & numerical data; Diet - methods; Diet - statistics & numerical data; Diet Surveys - methods; Diet Surveys - statistics & numerical data; Eggs - statistics & numerical data; Female; Food; Food of animal origin; Health surveys; Humans; Male; Meat - statistics & numerical data; Milk - statistics & numerical data; Reproducibility of Results; Seafood - statistics & numerical data; Vitamin D - administration & dosage; Vitamin D in animal nutrition; New Zealand; Australia; dietary survey; animal origin foods; adult diets; Australia; vitamin D
• ISSN: 0964-7058; 1440-6047
• DOI: 10.6133/apjcn.2015.24.4.04

Objectives: To assess the potential dietary supply of vitamin D to Australian adults by application of new data for Australian primary foods of animal origin.
Methods: New published analytical data on the vitamin D contents of Australian primary foods from animal products were obtained and assessed for reliability. Using food consumption data from Australian population dietary surveys for 1995 and 2011-2013, estimates were made of the likely average daily intakes of vitamin D equivalents from these sources by Australian adults.
Results: Meats, chicken, fish, eggs and dairy produce may alone have contributed about 4.2 mug vitamin D equivalents per day to average Australian diets of adults >18 years in 1995 and 4.3 mug in 2011-2013.
Conclusions: Dietary vitamin D intake in Australia is likely to be higher than previously estimated because new data from improved analytical methods reveal the contributions to vitamin D supply from foods of animal origin. Absence of reliable vitamin D data for milk and milk products, and the gaps in vitamin D data for many commonly consumed seafood, poultry, eggs and processed animal products greatly limit estimation of dietary vitamin D intakes by Australians.