Intake of vitamins B1, B2, C, A and E estimated on the basis of analysis of weekly diets of 19 Finnish hospitals

Contents of vitamins B-1, B-2, C, A and E were determined and intakes of these vitamins calculated in homogenized weekly diets collected from 19 central hospitals throughout Finland. In addition, the possibility of using the hospital diet data to estimate the level of average daily vitamin intake in Finland was evaluated. This was facilitated by comparing the daily food consumption in hospitals with the average daily food consumption in Finland and assessing the average vitamin intake of Finnish people accordingly. Intakes of vitamins A, B-2 and C (1600 RE, 2.9 mg and 148.9 mg day(-1), respectively) exceeded the recommendations for hospital diets. On the other hand, mean intakes of vitamins E and B-1 (8.9 and 1.0 mg day(-1), respectively) were slightly below the recommendations. Comparison of daily food consumption from hospital diets with the average daily food consumption in Finland suggests that average Finnish intakes of vitamins B-1 and E are close to the intake values obtained from the hospital diets studied.