Dietary Assessment Tools

A detailed diary of food and beverage intake over a short period (days or a week).

Accurate portion sizing; however, it requires training.

Detects real-time dietary behaviors and monitor dietary changes over time.

It usually requires data analysis which could be time consuming.

A survey to report how often participants consume certain kinds of food over a long period of time.

It can track long term dietary habits; however, it relies on memory.

It can determine the correlation between dietary habits and certain chronic diseases.

Data is limited to the items of food included in the survey.

It does not detect daily variability in diet.

It requires food consumption databases for calculations.

A quick and easy tool to assess specific dietary intake (single nutrient or food group)

It takes a shorter time than FR and FFQ.

Identifies people at risk for dietary deficiencies or excesses which is useful for public health.

It does not provide detailed dietary intake.

Data analysis is limited by the specificity of the questions.