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Information on fortifiable food consumption is essential to design, monitor and evaluate fortification programmes, yet detailed methods like 24‐h recalls (24HRs) that provide such data are rarely conducted. Simplified questionnaire‐based methods exist but their validity compared with 24HRs has not been shown. We compared two simplified methods (i.e., a household food acquisition and purchase questionnaire [FAPQ] and a 7‐day semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire [SQ‐FFQ]) against 24HRs for estimating fortifiable food consumption. We assessed the consumption of fortifiable wheat flour and oil using a FAPQ and, for wheat flour only, a 7‐day SQ‐FFQ and compared the results against 24HRs. The participants included children 12−18 months (n = 123) and their mothers 18−49 years selected for a study assessing child vitamin A intake and status in Mandaluyong City, Philippines. For fortifiable wheat flour, the FAPQ estimated considerably lower mean intakes compared to 24HRs for children and mothers (2.2 vs. 14.1 g/day and 5.1 vs. 42.3 g/day, respectively), while the SQ‐FFQ estimated slightly higher mean intakes (15.7 vs. 14.1 g/day and 51.5 vs. 42.3 g/day, respectively). For fortifiable oil, the FAPQ estimated considerably higher mean intakes compared to 24HRs for children and mothers (4.6 vs. 1.8 g/day and 12.5 vs. 6.1 g/day, respectively). The SQ‐FFQ, but not the FAPQ, generated useful information on fortifiable food consumption that can inform fortification programme design and monitoring decisions in the absence of more detailed individual‐level data. Potential adaptations to improve the FAPQ, such as additional questions on foods prepared away from home and usage patterns, merit further research. Key messages: Fortifiable (i.e., industrially processed) food consumption data are essential to design, monitor and evaluate fortification programmes, yet 24‐h recalls (24HRs) that provide such data are rarely conducted.Simplified methods, such as targeted food acquisition and purchase questionnaires (FAPQs) and semiquantitative food frequency questionnaires (SQ‐FFQs), exist but their validity compared to 24HRs has not been shown.Among Filipino children 12−18 months and their mothers, the SQ‐FFQ generated useful information on fortifiable wheat flour consumption while the FAPQ systematically underestimated wheat flour and overestimated oil.Further research could strengthen the FAPQ to better capture foods prepared away from home and usage patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The retinol isotope dilution (RID) method has been used to evaluate vitamin A (VA) status in healthy adults and children in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) and to assess the efficacy of various VA interventions.Objective: The study was designed to examine whether dried serum spots (DSS) can be applied to RID when conducting VA total body store (TBS) assessments in community settings.Methods: Four days after an oral dose of 0.4 mg [13C10]retinyl acetate was administered to Filipino children (12-18 mo), a single blood draw was divided to isolate both serum and plasma. Serum (40 μL) was spotted and dried on Whatman 903 cards and shipped at ambient temperature whereas liquid plasma (LP) was frozen at -80°C and shipped on dry ice. The VA tracer to tracee ratio from DSS and LP was quantified by LC-MS/MS. Comparisons between DSS and LP paired samples (n = 72) were made for [13C10]retinol specific activity (SAp) by Pearson's correlation and for VA TBS by Bland-Altman analysis.Results: The sum of 3 coextracted DSS were required to consistently detect [13C10]retinol above the LC-MS/MS limit of quantitation (LOQ). [13C10]retinol SAp from DSS was highly correlated with SAp from LP (r = 0.945; P < 0.01). A comparison of methods for TBS determination using Bland-Altman analysis indicated agreement with an intraindividual difference of 24.7 μmol (4.6%). Mean total liver reserve (TLR) values from DSS and LP were 1.7 μmol/g (± 0.6 SD) and 1.6 μmol/g (± 0.6 SD), respectively.Conclusions: VA TBS can be determined from DSS thereby reducing the logistics and cost of maintaining a cold chain by shipping samples at ambient temperature and, thus, making the RID technique more feasible in LMIC community settings. This trial was registered at https://clinicaltrials.gov as NCT03030339. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]