Comparison of some mineral contents of common Iranian food items with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) table

Purpose The importance of adequate dietary intake of essential minerals for the maintenance of optimal health and growth in humans is well recognized. Accordingly, food composition tables are used for evaluating nutrient adequacy and for nutritional policy making. As in Iran there is no up‐to‐date national food composition table, usually data of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) are used. However, because of environmental and genetic differences, the applicability of this information in Iran had been questioned. Hence, the purpose of the present study is to analyze micronutrients content of different food items. Design/methodology/approach In total, 85 samples of 17 different food items were chosen for this study. The iron, phosphorus, calcium and zinc contents of food items were measured using spectrophotometric method and the values were compared with the data of USDA food composition table. Findings There were differences between the micronutrient content of Iranian food items when compared with USDA values. The greatest variation was observed in the case of calcium content for which 58.82 percent of products had appreciable differences followed by iron (47.17 percent), phosphorus (47.05 percent) and zinc (35.29 percent). Given these differences, caution must be taken in using data from other countries tables especially in the case of evaluating nutrient adequacy and nutritional policy making. Originality/value This paper is believed to be the only one which compared some mineral content of Iranian food items with USDA food composition table as a most commonly used table in Iran.