Food and beverage recall

A 24-hour dietary recall tool called Intake24 was the main source of dietary data from the National Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey (NNPAS) 2023 and the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey (NATSINPAS) 2023. Intake24 is an open-source self-completed computerised dietary recall system based on multiple-pass 24-hour recall. Intake24 was developed and validated by the University of Newcastle in the UK (Bradley et al. 2016; Foster et al. 2019) and adapted for Australia by Monash University (McCaffrey et al. 2025). It has been adapted for this study by the ABS in collaboration with Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) and Monash University. 

In these surveys, it was used by interviewers during face-to-face interviews and by respondents as an online tool. The 24-hour dietary recall tool guided respondents to accurately report everything they ate and drank on the day before the interview, covering the full 24-hour period from midnight to midnight. Using a multiple pass approach, the tool navigated respondents through a step-by-step review of their day, enhancing recall and enabling prompts for commonly forgotten foods and drinks (e.g. snacks and water).

Respondents first recorded what was consumed:

• the time they ate or drank
• the name of the meal (e.g. breakfast, lunch)
• what they consumed, typed into separate fields (called “search terms”).

This was done for each meal. To help, default meal names and times were provided.

Intake24 then showed a list of possible foods based on what the respondent typed. They chose the closest match or refined their search term. They could report sandwiches and salads using predefined components (e.g. bread, spread, fillings). If a food wasn’t listed, they could report it as missing. Respondents then estimated how much they consumed using images of food and standard measures. Further detail can be found in Portion selection methods.

Intake24 used follow up questions for foods often eaten together. For example, “Did you have any butter or margarine with your bread?”. Before finishing, it checked for missing items and asked if:

• any drinks were consumed with a meal (if none were reported)
• any snacks were consumed throughout the day
• there were any other food or drink that hadn’t yet been mentioned.

There are more than 3,500 food and beverage items used in the study, including:

• individual food ingredients (e.g. flours, oils, fruits and vegetables)
• mixed dishes (e.g. spaghetti Bolognese, ham and cheese sandwich).

The food and portion files include foods eaten traditionally by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples (sometimes called “traditional foods” or “bush tucker”). The ABS consulted with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and nutrition experts to include traditional foods commonly consumed in Australia. Some examples of these foods include kangaroo, wild-caught pig, dugong, turtle, wallaby, quandong, bush tomato and yams.

To help respondents estimate how much food and drink they had, Intake24 uses four main methods. These methods link to a portion weight estimate in grams.

1. Standard portions and measures

These are everyday sizes or amounts, like:

• a medium chicken drumstick
• a thick slice of bread
• a small packet of chips/crisps
• cups of cooked rice
• teaspoons of coffee powder.

Respondents chose the measure type and quantity (e.g. 2 thick slices of bread). They could adjust using fractions or multiples. All standard measures have weight estimates provided by FSANZ, which can be found in the AUSNUT 2023 - Food measures file on the FSANZ website.

2. Guide Images

There are images in Intake24 showing different sizes of similar foods or beverages. For example:

• soft drink cans and bottles
• yoghurt tubs and packets
• meats (e.g. chicken schnitzel).

Respondents picked the image that matched what they had and then indicated how many. These images helped with reporting foods and drinks like chocolate, fruits, meats, bottled drinks and snacks. Portion weights are available in the AUSNUT 2023 - Food measures file on the FSANZ website.

3. As-served images

The Intake24 images presented 5 to 7 images of food on a plate or in a bowl, with increasing amounts. Respondents chose the image that looked closest to what they ate. If they had more or less than the images show, they could adjust using fractions or multiples.

Note: Individual portion sizes for as-served images are not included in the AUSNUT food measures file, only the densities to allow the conversion into gram amounts are included.

4. Drink-scale

After choosing the drink container (e.g. mug or takeaway cup), respondents used an on-screen slider to indicate how full it was. Default fill levels were used. Intake24 calculates the portion amount based on the fill level and cup size.

Note: Individual portion sizes are not included in the AUSNUT food measures file, only the densities to allow the conversion into gram amounts are included.

Each food item within Intake24 had a unique food ID that connected it to the AUSNUT 2023 food and dietary supplement classification system. This includes an 8-digit survey ID and groupings into broader 5-, 3- and 2- digit category classifications. In some instances, multiple foods in Intake24 align to a single AUSNUT food if a food item is known by several names, but the food composition is the same or similar. Fifty-two “not further defined” codes were included for use in recipe creation, or when insufficient detail was provided in the survey. In addition, foods have been identified as discretionary or non-discretionary according to the Australian Dietary Guidelines (ADG). See Discretionary Foods for more information.

AUSNUT 2023 provides detailed profiles for foods and ingredients with the amount of energy, nutrients, vitamins, minerals, and ADG food group serves they contain per 100 grams. To calculate what each person consumed some portion sizes from Intake24 were first adjusted using a conversion factor (also called a density factor). The nutrients and food group values were then multiplied by the amount eaten per food, and totals summed for each recall day.

Further information on portion conversion factors and ADG food groups is available in the AUSNUT 2023 files on the FSANZ website, and a full list of available data is in the NNPAS Data Item List and the NATSINPAS Data Item List.

To make sure the food data from the recall were accurate and complete, four types of checks were done:

1. Missing foods 

Sometimes, respondents couldn’t find the exact food they ate. In these cases, they described the food in detail (e.g. brand, ingredients, how it was prepared and amount consumed). ABS and FSANZ reviewed this information and either:

• matched to an existing AUSNUT food, or
• created a new food item and associated profile within AUSNUT. 

Fifty-five new food items were added to AUSNUT through this process. Portion weights were assigned based on the respondent’s information and input from FSANZ.

2. Orphan foods 

'Orphan foods' that are usually eaten with something else (e.g. instant coffee powder with water), or were only partially entered (e.g., someone searched for “chips and gravy” but only added “chips”). Recalls were reviewed for possible orphan foods.

If identified, one of two options were applied:

1. the missing food items were added (e.g. add gravy to the meal).
2. the food was recoded to a more complete option (e.g. instant coffee made with water). 

Portions were imputed for these foods using the median or mode amount reported for the food (with consideration of age group and sex), or a standard measure (available in the FSANZ food measures file). 

3. Search term mismatches

Sometimes the food selected didn’t match the search term. For example, respondents may have:

• searched for “potato bake” and selected “roast potato”
• searched for “curry puffs” and selected “beef curry powder”.

Recalls were reviewed for possible search term mismatches. If identified, they were corrected using:

• the original search term
• portion size method
• other foods in the meal
• subsequent recalls or recalls of other people in the house.

4. No food or drink reported

In a few rare instances, a single line was reported in Intake24 with a comment provided (e.g. “no food or drink”). It is expected that some people may not consume food and drink in a single day, for example, if they are unwell, preparing for surgery or fasting. These records were retained and there was no exclusion criteria based on number of foods and eating occasions reported. 

After all dietary data were collected, the data were reviewed to check for errors and improve accuracy.

Recalls were reviewed by checking against: 

• age, sex, estimated basal metabolic rate and body size
• how the respondents reported across their recall (and subsequent recalls)
• whether the food made up a large proportion of their total intake
• how others respondents reported the same or similar foods
• whether foods existed in the market with those weights
• past survey data.

Ready meal and takeaway food data were checked against FSANZ data and readily available information from outlets in Australia.

Some examples of issues found include unusually high or low portion sizes (e.g. 2 kg pineapple, 20 L of water) and extremely high nutrient amounts (e.g. high amounts of calcium due to incorrect reporting of “milk powder” rather than “milk made from powder”). 

Fixes to portion weights included:

• winsorising extreme values
• applying scaling factors
• recoding to a standard measure.

Bradley J, Simpson E, Poliakov I, Matthews JN, Olivier P, Adamson AJ, Foster E (2016) Comparison of INTAKE24 (an Online 24-h Dietary Recall Tool) with Interviewer-Led 24-h Recall in 11-24 Year-Old, Nutrients, 8(6):358, accessed 25/07/2025.

Foster E, Lee C, Imamura F, Hollidge SE, Westgate KL, Venables MC, Poliakov I, Rowland MK, Osadchiy T, Bradley JC, Simpson EL, Adamson AJ, Olivier P, Wareham N, Forouhi NG, Brage S (2019), Validity and reliability of an online self-report 24-h dietary recall method (Intake24): a doubly labelled water study and repeated-measures analysis, Journal of Nutritional Science, 30(8):e29, accessed 25/07/2025.

McCaffrey T, Foster E, Ng, H, Ivaturi A, Abdulgalimov D, Poliakov I, Rowland M, Barklamb A, Legrand S, Prawira C, Olivier P (2025), Intake24-AUS Food List, Monash University, accessed 25/07/2025.