INDIAN DIETETIC ASSOCIATION DATABASE REGIONAL COOKED AND RAW

FOOD EQIVALENCE

(Project to be taken up by RD Dietetic Interns at their respective Hospitals

to develop an IDA Regional Database on the raw food weight equivalents of
cooked foodstuffs. This will facilitate dietary and nutrient evaluation of
patients)

Aim of the Project:

To standardize some commonly consumed cooked foods in terms of household

measures and raw foods into equivalent weight of the raw foods.

Rationale:

To ensure accuracy in diet planning and evaluation of the nutrient content of

diets or intake of different food groups, it is essential to have an idea of

- one serving portion of the cooked foods for the various age groups

- the amount of these foods in terms of common household measures, used

for eating or serving

- conversion of the amounts in household measures to the constituent

weight of the raw foods

Commonly used household measures include large, medium or small katoris,

bowls or cups, teaspoon, tablespoon and serving spoons. For ensuring
accuracy of the standardization, the size of the container in terms of diameter
and height or the volume must be known.

In case of food items like chapatis, parathas, dosa, idli, the size and thichness
needs to be noted. For pulses and preparations like sambhar, the consistency
and texture should be known. These details facilitate better assessment of the
raw weights of the ingredients.

An idea of the weight of foodstuffs which maybe eaten raw, as related to their
size, is also beneficial. For example, it is desirable to know the weight of a
small, medium or large apple or any other fruit, a small or medium cucumber
or other salad vegetables, a slice of bread or a bun, or a cup of milk.

Standardization:

For standardization, known amounts of various raw foods need to be cooked

to prepare various commonly consumed food items, in the traditional way of
the concerned region. For cooking of the various food items, suggested
amounts on an average could be 250ml milk, 30-60g pulse, 80-100g of most
flesh foods, 80-100 g cereal and 200g vegetables. These weights refer to the
edible food portion. An additional exercise could be documentation of the
edible content of different raw foods, especially vegetables or flesh foods. The
food amounts used maybe varied based on the specific preparation and
regional dietary patterns. It is important to note the amount of onion and
tomato, if used, in the preparation, as also the amount of fat. Ginger and garlic
are considered as free foods.

As an example, if cucumber raita is to be standardized, 150 g of curd and 50-

75 g cucumber could be taken and the raita made. From the amount made,
the number of servings and size of serving need to be assessed. The
consistency should also be noted. The data thus obtained will help to know
the amount of curd and cucumber that goes into 1 serving of raita, of a
specific consistency. This in turn will help in meal planning in terms of food
amounts to use for one serving and also calculate the nutrient content of 1
serving, as nutrient content of various foods is given by ICMR in terms of
edible portion of raw foods. Other food preparations may be standardized in a
similar manner.

For deep fried food items, the approximate amount of fat/oil absorbed maybe
assessed by weighing the frying pan with oil, before and after frying the food
product. Use of a digital weighing scale or a spring balance with about 2-10 g
sensitivity is recommended.

For carrying out the standardization, the same size of household (HH)
utensils should be used across all hospitals recognized for RD, to ensure
uniformity.

- Each intern could standardize 4-6 food items/ dishes, as decided by the
internship In-charge. Each item must be standardized in duplicate, if not
triplicate and the average values noted.

- The data generated and gathered by all the interns should be made
available to the Chapter Pesident.

- The recipe used for the preparation of the dishes should be documented
with amounts of raw ingredients used (free foods could be left out)

- Regional, commonly used food items served in the hospital should be

selected for standardization in the 1 st stage. Subsequently, other regional
food items could also be standardized.

Standarization Data Entry Format

Name of Intern:

Internship Period: -------------- to -----------

Hospital:

Chapter:

Food items standardized:

Food Raw Raw Cooked COOKED FOOD General
Group & Ingred- weight of Obser-
Prepar- ients Ingred- Weight Size of 1 Total no. of vations (size,
ation ients adult Servings in thickness,
serving in HH consistency
(g) HH measures etc)
(g) measures

Milk &

Milk

Products

1.

2.

3. etc

Flesh

Foods

1.

2.

3. etc

Pulses

1.

3. etc

Vege-
tables

1.

2.

3. etc

& so on!

RAW FOOD ITEMS

Raw Food Item HH measure/ size Raw weight (g)

Milk

-milk Medium cup(200ml)

-curd I medium katori

-panir piece cube

 -cheese cube/slice

Meat

-egg medium

-chicken drumstick Small size

-boneless piece etc 1 cube etc

etc;

Cereals

-Biscuit

-Cookie

-Cornflakes

-Oats etc

and continued so on for

other food groups

CALCULATIONS

An example using dry potato vegetable !

Raw weight of potato taken = 200g

Raw weight of onion taken = 60g

Weight of oil taken =20g

- Cooked weight = g (This information will help to determine the

approximate amount of raw food required for a specific no. of serving
portions or patients/persons)

- Cooked amount in HH measures = 2.5 medium katoris

- 1 serving portion assessed as = 0.75 or katori

- Raw potato in 1 serving (3/4 katoris) = 200/2.5 x 0.75 = 60g

- Raw onion in 1 serving (3/4 katoris) = 60/2.5 x 0.75 = 18g

- Oil in 1 serving (3/4 katoris) = 20/2.5 x 0.75 = 6g

SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR FOOD ITEMS TO BE STANDARDIZED WITH

RAW FOOD AMOUNTS

(other items maybe standardized instead, based on regional diets!)

 Cooked/Prepared Food Items

Milk & milk products

Cucumber Raita
- Curd 125g
- Cucumber 50g

Boondi raita
- Curd 125g
- Besan 30g
- Oil ??

Rice/ Vermecelli Kheer

- Milk 250ml
- rice/vermicelli 10g
- Sugar 15g

Carrot/ Bottle Gourd Kheer

- Milk 250ml
- Carrot/ bottlegourd 50g
- sugar 15g

Fruit Custard
- Milk 250g
- Custard powder 15g
- sugar 15g
- Fruit 100g

Panir Curry
- Panir 50g
- Onion 20g
-Tomato 25g
- Oil 5g

Flesh foods

Meat/Chicken Curry
- Meat/chicken 100g
- Onion 50g
- Tomato 50g
- Oil 5-10g

Pulses

Dry Dal
- Pulse (eg. Bengal gram dal 30g
- Oil 5g
 Optional
- Onion
- Tomato

Liquid texture Dal

- Red gram dal 30g
- Oil 5g
Optional
- Onion
-Tomato

Sambhar
- Red gram dal 30g
- Carrot 15g
- Pumpkin 15g
- Onion 15g
- Drumstick 15g
- Oil 5g

Kadhi
- Besan 30g
- Curd 100g
- Onion 20g
- Oil 5g
- Oil for frying balls ??

Nutrinuggets in gravy
- Soya Nutrinuggets 20g
- Onion 25g
- Tomato 25g
- Oil 5g

Vegetables (A Group)

Dry Spinach/GLV Bhujia

- Spinach/ other GLV 200g
- Onion 20g
- Tomato 25g
- Oil 5g

Spinach Saag (gravy)

- Spinach/ other GLV 200g
- Onion 20g
- Tomato 25g
- Oil 5g

Bottle Gourd Dry

- Bottle gourd 200g
- Onion 20g
 - Tomato 25g
- Oil 5g

Vegetables (B Group)

Potato Pea Curry

- Potato 50g
- Shelled peas 50g
- Onion 20g
- Tomato 25g
- Oil 5g

Dry Potato
- Potato 100g
- Oil 5g

Dry Ladies Finger

- Ladies finger 100g
- Onion 25g
- Oil 10g

Stuffed Tomato/Capsicum
- Capsicum/tomato (whole) 50g
- Potato 50g
- Onion 20g
- Oil 20g

Vegetable Pakora
- Vegetable/ Potato 50g
- Gram flour (besan) 30g
- Oil (for frying) ??

Cereals

Boiled Rice
- Rice 100g

Khichri
- Rice 70g
- Pulse 30g
- Oil 5g

Chapati
- Wheat flour (atta) 100g

Paratha (stuffed)
- Wheat flour 100g
- Vegetable/potato 150g
- Oil ??
 Puri
-Wheat flour 100g
-Oil 5-10g
- Oil for frying (to be weighed)

Broken Wheat/ Semolina/Ragi Porridge

- Cereal 20g
- Milk 250g
- Sugar 10g

Upma/ Poha
- Semolina/Rice flakes 40g
- Onion 20g
- Potato 30g
- Peanuts 5g
- Oil 5g

RAW FOOD ITEMS (some examples)

Milk & Its Products

Milk 1 medium , large cup
1 small, medium, large glass
Curd 1 medium katori
Panir 1 1/2 cube
Cheese 1 cube

Animal Foods
Egg 1 small, medium, large
Ham 1 thin slice
Cocktail sausage 1 link

Pulses
Raw pulse 1 medium katori
Green gram sprouts 1 medium katori

Vegetables
- Cucumber, Tomato, Onion, Potato, Capsicum, Carrot, Bitter gourd etc
1 small, medium, large
- Peas pods with shell: 20 in number
- Peas shelled 1 medium katori
- Spinach 1 small bunch with stalks
1 small bunch with stalks removed

Fruit
- Banana, Apple, Pear, Mango, Sapota, Guava, Orange, Sweet lime,Lemo
1 small, medium, large
- Musk melon 1 small, medium
- Water melon 1 small, medium
- Pineapple 1 slice
- Orange/ sweet lime juice 1small orange/sweet lime
1 medium orange/ sweet lime

Cereal
Bread 1 medium slice, 1 largr slice
Glucose/marie biscuits 4 pieces
Salto biscuits 4 pieces
Cookies 4 pieces
Cornflakes 1 medium katori

Miscellaneous Items
- Custard powder, sugar, fat/oil, butter, Jam, Jaggery, Groundnuts, Almonds etc
1 teaspoon, 1 tablespoon

Note:
- Other food items and different food amounts maybe suggested
- Internship Incharge could allot food items to be standardized to interns
- Suggestions for size of household measures to be used may kindly be
made, if those given here are not found suitable. Uniform size and
volume of HH measures must be used at all hospitals.

SIZES:
Sizes could vary a little but capacity or volume should remain the same
across all hospitals for results to be comparable & standard. Ideally, the
same size utensils should be used everywhere!
Comments on the HH measures to be used and their size and capacity
please?!

HH Measure Size/Dimension Volume (ml)

1. Katori medium 3dia, 1 ht 125ml

2. Glass large 2 x 4 ht x 2 240ml
3.Glass medium 2 x 4ht x 1 200ml
4. Cup large 2 dia x 3 ht 250ml
5. Cup medium 2 dia x 3 ht 200ml
6.Serving spoon/
karchi large 2 dia, 1 deep 50ml
7. Serving spoon/
karchi medium 2 dia, 5/8 deep 25ml
8. Serving spoon/
karchi small 1 7/8 dia, 5/8deep 15ml
9. 1 teaspoon -- 5ml
10. 1 tablespoon -- 15ml