Comparison of proximate, mineral and vitamin composition of common Brazilian and US foods

Because food analysis is costly and laborious, analytical data are frequently borrowed from tables of developed countries and incorporated in tables of developing countries. Taking advantage of the new Brazilian table of food composition, which is based on representative national sampling and actual analyses, an attempt is made to gain an insight into the adequacy of this practice by comparing data from the Brazilian and US tables in terms of the proximate, mineral and vitamin composition of 19 selected foods, common to both countries. For proximate composition, data agreement is excellent for dry whole milk; good for condensed milk, dry nonfat instant milk and canned peas; and fairly good for black beans, milk chocolate, lentils, oats, long-grain white rice and wheat flour. Greater variation is seen with minerals and vitamins. In terms of minerals, agreement is very good only for dry whole milk, good for black beans and canned peas; fairly good with milk chocolate, lentils, wheat flour and natural yogurt. For vitamins, agreement can be considered good only for wheat crackers and yogurt and fairly good for condensed milk and dry whole milk. The comparison indicates that data may be borrowed for proximate composition provided the foods are equivalent. However, caution must be taken in borrowing data for micronutrients.