Development of a Photographic Food Atlas as a Portion Size Estimation Kit for Malaysian

A photographic food atlas is a series of photographs showing different quantities of different foods. It serves as a portion size estimation aid (PSEA). In Malaysia, the existing food atlases, which display foods in exchanges and standard portion sizes, may not be representative of the actual sizes of the portions of food consumed by the local population. This paper aims to describe the development of a food atlas, namely the 'MY Food Album', and assess its usability as a PSEA. Thirty four participants (aged 31.6±20.9 y) served themselves, in a laboratory setting, what they considered to be typical, small, medium, and large portions of 23 amorphus food items. All food portions were weighed to obtain the mean and standard deviation of the range of food portion sizes to be displayed in the food atlas. Using standard camera and lighting settings, various local foods were photographed at an angle of 45º. A total of 393 food items were categorized into 14 food groups and presented as serial (n=101), guide (n=213) and range (n=79) photographs. The usability of MY Food Album was evaluated by six nutritionists and dietitians using an adapted questionnaire. The food atlas was perceived to be useful to aid in the quantification of food during dietary assessment. It was suggested that the function, dimension and application of fiducial markers be introduced in the food atlas to facilitate its use in size estimation. While MY Food Album was well-accepted as a PSEA, futher validation is required to evaluate the effectiveness of this newly developed food atlas in portion size estimation.