Estimation of Daily Intake of Vitamins, Minerals and Free Amino Acids from Fresh Foods Purchased in Japan according to the Market Basket Method

Abstract

The daily intakes of many kinds of food additives from processed foodstuffs have been investigated using the Market Basket Method proposed by the Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare. In this study, we tried to estimate to what extent food additives naturally present in foods are ingested daily from fresh foodstuffs. Following our list of foodstuffs based on the statistical values presented in “the National Nutrition Survey” and “the Statistical Yearbook of Food Industries, ” fresh foodstuffs were purchased in October, 1985, at nine locations in Japan, The foodstuffs collected were classified into six groups. Each group was analyzed with reference to 9 kinds of vitamins, 4 kinds of minerals and 12 kinds of free amino acids. Comparison of the daily intakes from fresh foodstuffs with those from processed foodstuffs suggested that most of the daily intakes of food additives investigated in the present experiments came from natural sources rather than from artificially added ones.