DASAT

The FoodLeader (Empowering Tomorrow's Food Security Leaders: Strengthening Higher Education Capacity for Sustainable Food Systems in Kenya and Mozambique) project is a collaboration between University of Helsinki (Finland), University of Nairobi (Kenya), and Universidade Lúrio (Mozambique).

Find more about FoodLeader project from the project website

https://www.helsinki.fi/en/projects/empowering-tomorrows-food-security-leaders

DASAT

Dietary and Food Safety Assessment Tool ( DASAT ) is a license-free, easy-to-use tool designed within the FoodLeader project. DASAT facilitates researchers and practitioners to collect, analyze, and interpret real-time data on diet quality and chemical food hazards, including mycotoxins and pesticides, using open-source technologies. This approach supports long-term tracking of nutritional benefits and health risks, helping ensure safer and more nutritious food for people. The current version of DASAT is especially tailored for monitoring School Feeding Programs (SFPs) . By generating reliable, repeated data, DASAT supports actionable policy development, fosters local food demand, and strengthens adaptive, inclusive, and climate-resilient food systems.

DASAT has two parts. The first part uses XLS-form developed to record data from 24h dietary recalls on Open Data Kit (ODK) application and save them in ONA server. ODK and ONA are both licence free. This app is the second part of DASAT that is designed to process the raw 24-hour dietary recall interview data, to aid in data cleaning and checking process, and finally to calculate nutrient intake and dietary exposure and visualize the results.

How to use the app?

1. See the training videos:

Introduction to DASAT

DASAT webapp

24h dietary recalls using ODK

Checking the dietary data with DASAT

Results and visualization

2. Prepare your data files for upload

To use DASAT webb app accepts csv files (comma delimited format) ONLY. Please ensure:

The columns in your files should have specific names .
Your data file should not contain any special characters (e.g., ä, ö, å, etc.).

Read more on how to prepare your files here.

Data files that can be uploaded are:

Raw 24-hour dietary recall interview data as a file generated with ODK and downloaded from ONA server, or
data table containing nutrient intakes calculated for each individual for each food item that the individual has reported
'Participant background data' that contains participant identification code (hhcode), country of the study, participants' age in years (or months for small children), study area, participants' education, height in cm, and weight in kg.
Your own analytical data on food pesticide or mycotoxin concentrations

2. Upload your dataset, correct any errors based on feedback from the app, and run the computation

3. Inspect the results

The results are visualized with figures and tables, and their content could be changed using their inbuilt options or the select options in the app. You can visualize the data by food group or background data. And you can download all tables and figures for your own use.

Raw 24h dietary recall interview data (from ODK app)

Check for a missing or incorrect portion size, food code or food that is not in the database (indicated with code 878787)

Nutrient intake data (from DASAT app)

Background data

Own hazard concentration data

Upload data files and run computations

Select consumption data to upload

Raw 24h dietary recall interview data (from ODK)

Browse...

Nutrient intake data (from DASAT app)

Browse...

Background data

Add background data

Background data

Browse...

Hazard exposure calculation

No Yes

Hazard concentration data

Literature data

Own data

Own data for exposure

Browse...

Hazard type

Select whether you want to calculate exposure to pesticides or mycotoxins.

Tables
Figures

Mean total nutrient intakes per individual over interview days Download CSV file

Energy (kcal) lower and upper threshold:

min

max

Nutrient intake calculations for each reported food item per individual and per day (totalorder) Download CSV file

Select nutrient

Select background variable

Figure 1. Distribution of the selected nutrient

Download csv file

Select nutrient

Select food group

Figure 2. Distribution of selected nutrient per food item from selected food group

Download csv file

Select nutrient

Select background variable

Figure 11. Contribution of each food group to nutrient intake, %, split by background variable

Select nutrient

Select food group

Figure 9. Contribution of each food group to nutrient intake, %

Figure 10. Contribution of each food item from the selected food group to nutrient intake, %

Figure 3. Carbohydrate, protein, and fat contributions to the total energy intake by food group, %

Figure 5. Amount of the nutrients from each food group, by food groups

Figure 6. Amount of the nutrients from each food group, by nutrients

Figure 7. Contribution of each food group to the total nutrient intake, %

Figure 8. Contribution of each food group to the total nutrient intake, %

Figure 8a. Contribution of each food group to the total nutrient intake, %

Select nutrient

Select background variable

Figure 11a. Contribution of meal types to nutrient intake, %, split by background variable

Select food group

select nutrient

Figure 9. meal Contribution of the selected food group to nutrient intakes, %

Figure 10. meal Contribution of meal types to nutrient intake in the selected food group, %

Description

DASAT provides nutrient intake calculations from the 24h dietary recall interviews in data tables and vizualises the results in figures. To view them, click on the “Table” or “Figure” button.

Nutrient intake tables

The tables offer both a detailed breakdown and average intakes of individual nutrient intakes based on 24-hour dietary recall data.

All tables can be downloaded as CSV files and used for further analysis. To better understand each table, refer to the info button located in the top-right corner of each table.

The first table displays the mean total nutrient intake per individual across interview days, which is useful for identifying potential under- or over-reporting based on total energy intake.

The second table presents crude nutrient intake per food item per day as reported in the 24h dietary recall interview. This data table can be used as an analytical dataset in your own analyses. Further, you can download this data file for you and later on upload it into DASAT using the 'Nutrient intake data (from DASAT app)' option in Upload tab. This data file also helps you to do in-depth data review, better understanding of the intake patterns, and detection of possible errors for correction in conjunction with the table that provides mean total nutrient intakes for each individual.

DASAT provides nutrient intake calculations from the 24h dietary recall interviews in data tables and vizualises the results in figures. To view them, click on the “Table” or “Figure” button.

Nutrient intake result figures can be viewed on three sheets. You can access them by clicking the 'Selected Nutrient', 'All Nutrients', and 'Meal Type' buttons.

Nutrient intake figures for selected nutrient

The figures on the right show the intake for one selected nutrient at a time. Click the info button at the top right corner of each figure to learn more about it.

The figures are interactive. They could be zoomed in and out, cut at horizontal or vertical direction. You can download each figure in '.png' format.The symbol buttons for zooming, cutting and downloading appear above the figure when you take your cursor on the figure.

For some figure also table with minimum, maximum, median and quantiles, is generated. All tables can be downloaded as CSV files

All figures and most of the tables can be enlargened, from the Expand-button that appears in the lower right corner when you take your cursor on the figure/table.

DASAT provides nutrient intake calculations from the 24h dietary recall interviews in data tables and vizualises the results in figures. To view them, click on the “Table” or “Figure” button.

Nutrient intake result figures can be viewed on three sheets. You can access them by clicking the 'Selected Nutrient', 'All Nutrients', and 'Meal Type' buttons.

Nutrient intake figures for all nutrients

The figures on the right show the intake for all nutrients. Click the info button at the top right corner of each figure to learn more about it.

All figures and most of the tables can be enlargened, from the Expand-button that appears in the lower right corner when you take your cursor on the figure/table.

For some figures it is possible to visualize only one nutrient by double-click on the name in the legend.

For other figures it is possible to visualize only one food group by double-click on the name in the legend.

DASAT provides nutrient intake calculations from the 24h dietary recall interviews in data tables and vizualises the results in figures. To view them, click on the “Table” or “Figure” button.

Nutrient intake result figures can be viewed on three sheets. You can access them by clicking the 'Selected Nutrient', 'All Nutrients', and 'Meal Type' buttons.

Nutrient intakes per meal type

The figures on the right show contribution of meal types to total nutrient intake: Overall and by selected background variables.For more information click on the info button on the top right corner of each figure.

All figures and most of the tables can be enlargened, from the Expand-button that appears in the lower right corner when you take your cursor on the figure/table.

Tables
Figures

Table A hazards. Summary exposure per individual Download CSV file

Table A2 hazards. Average total exposure per individual Download CSV file

Table B hazards. Hazard exposures per individual by foods Download CSV file

Table C hazards. Mean exposure to hazards per foods among consumers Download CSV file

Figure 6 hazards. Exposure by hazards

Select hazard

Select background variable

Figure 1 hazards. Distribution of hazard exposure

Figure 5 hazards. Exposure by foods

Select hazard

Select food group

Figure 2 hazards. Distribution of hazard exposure by foods

Select hazard

Select background variable

Figure 11 hazards. Contribution of each food item to hazard exposure, %, split by background variable

Select hazard

Select food group

Figure 9 hazards. Contribution of each food group to the selected hazard exposure

Figure 10 hazards. Contribution of each food item from the selected food group to the hazard exposure

Figure 7 hazards Contribution of each food group to the total hazard exposure, %

Select hazard

Select background variable

Figure 11a hazards. Contribution of each meal type to the hazard exposure, %

Select food group

Select hazard

Figure 9 meal hazards. Contribution of the selected food group to hazard exposures, %

Figure 10 meal hazards. Contribution of meal types to hazard exposure in the selected food group, %

Description

Exposure tables

DASAT provides the resuls on dietary exposure to chemical food hazards in both tables and figures. To view them, click on the 'Table' or 'Figure' button.

Table A and A2 shows the summary and average of total exposure per individual for each hazard.

Table B presents hazard exposures per individual for every food item consumed at the most detailed level.

Table A,A2 and B are useful for any further analysis.

Table C is a summary table giving an overview of the average exposures from specific foods among those who consume the food.

All tables can be downloaded as CSV files and used for further analysis.

To better understand each table, refer to the info button located in the top-right corner of each table.

Exposure figures for selected hazard

The figures on the right show the exposure for one selected hazard at a time.

The figures are interactive. They could be zoomed in and out, cut at horizontal or vertical direction. The inbuild download button could be used to save the figure in '.png' format. For some figures also table with minimum, maximum, median and quantiles, is generated.

To better understand each figure, refer to the info button located in the top-right corner of each figure.

Exposure figures for hazard classes

The figure on the right is a stacked bar chart illustrating the percentage contribution of various food items to the total exposure for each hazard class. The x-axis represents different hazard classes, while the y-axis shows the percentage contribution of food items to overall exposure. Each bar is segmented by color, with each segment representing a specific food item. The legend on the right identifies which color corresponds to which food item. This visualization helps highlight which food items contribute most to specific hazard exposures and how these contributions differ across hazard classes.

The figure is interactive. It could be zoomed in and out, cut at horizontal or vertical direction. The inbuild download button could be used to save the figure in '.png' format.

It is possible to visualize only one hazard by double-click on the name in the legend.

Exposure figures for meal type contribution

The figures on the right show the meal type contribution to hazard exposure: Overal, by selected background variables or by selected food group.

The figures are interactive. They could be zoomed in and out, cut at horizontal or vertical direction. The inbuilt download button could be used to save the figure in '.png' format.

For more information click on the info button on the top right corner of each figure

Figure 12. Proportions of foods and food groups in the diet

Description

Here you can explore the share of consumed food items within a food group, and the share of the food groups within the whole diet.

Each color in the figure 12 represents a different food group. The bigger the food group rectangle, the more individuals consumed foods from this group in relation to the other food groups.

Within each food group, the size of the rectangles represent how many individuals consumed each food item in proportion to the other food items within the same food group. The bigger the rectangle, the more individuals consumed this food item in relation to the other food items in the same food group.

You can find more information about the figure by clicking the info-button in the upper right corner of the figure.

Instructions for DASAT
Databases

What is DASAT

To understand what the Dietary and Food Safety Assessment Tool (DASAT) is about, please see first the following training videos:

Introduction to DASAT

DASAT webapp

Raw 24h dietary recall data from the ODK application:

In order to use DASAT in data checking process, the 24h dietary recall interviews has to be collected using the form designed for ODK. The current version of the form can be downloaded from Zenodo:

https://zenodo.org/records/19386618

Please see the training video on how to use the ODK when conducting 24h dietary recall interviews:

24h dietary recalls in ODK

We recommend using ONA sever in the data collection:

https://ona.io/home/

Other servers may also work, but we cannot guarantee the compatibility with DASAT as the app has been streamlined with using data that was downloaded from the ONA server.

The csv- data file containing the raw 24h recall data downloaded from ONA can be uploaded as such to DASAT in the 'Upload data' tab.

The ODK form can be freely used in any dietary surveys, but reference in any publications that follow data collection to the developers of the form and DASAT is required.

The form can be tailored for study purposes to some extent. We strongly recommend to consult the developers of DASAT before modifying the form. Also, please familiarize yourself with the principles of ODK and form development before using the form:

https://docs.getodk.org/

In general, you may add new questions to the beginning or delete following items if you do not need them:

collection_date = date of data collection
interview_day = what week day the interview concerns
in_school = was the child in school in the previous day
ate_school = did the child eat school meal
first_name_child
family_name_child
hhcode2 = second recording of the participant identification code

However, are required items that cannot be removed. Also, the following variables in the beginning of the form cannot be changed or removed:

username = username for the ONA server (automatically recorded)
deviceid = id of the device that was used in the interview (automatically recorded)
hhcode = participant identification code
interview_number = the number of the interview for the participant, for example, number 1 is the first interview, number 2 would be the second interview.

The form includes notes of which content can be modified according to study needs. Also different language versions can be added or changed.

Beyond the notes, the other items placed within the 24h recall interview (pass 1, pass 2 and pass 3) cannot be removed or variable names changed. For some variables, the answer options can be modified in the 'Choises' sheet. For example, for mealtypes or for the consumption times the options can be modified. Also, in case you use a local food portion size pictures or want to include local foods, these can be added / changed in the Choises sheet.

In case you want to include new food items or recipes, it requires updating the DASAT database. This is possible, but requires work from you. Please contact DASAT developers to get more information on how to extend the food composition database.

Nutrient intake data from DASAT

In DASAT you can use the raw 24h dietary recall data collected with ODK to check and correct your data. Please see the training video:

Data clearance with DASAT

Once you have completed the data clearance you can download the analytical dataset that contains food and nutrient calculations. This dataset can be uploaded again into DASAT to explore the results and also calculate hazard exposures. This datafile you get from the 'Nutrient intake' tab and the 'Tables' sheet. It is the second table entitled 'Nutrient intake calculations for each reported food item per individual and per day (totalorder)' . Term 'totalorder' refers to specific item in DASAT that creates this table. Please see the training video for uploading this data file and vizualising the results:

Data vizualisation

In principle, any other data-table that is similar to this file can be uploaded. For example, if you have previously collected dietary data in Kenya and used the Kenyan food composition tables to calculate food and nutrient intakes per participant and per food item. However, the data file must contain exactly the same variables with the exact names and order. Please contact developers of DASAT to get more information.

Background interview data

DASAT can be used without any background information about participants' sociodemographic characteristics. Background data can be collected also using ODK and ONA server, or with any other form of data collection, but the format and the variable names must follow these instructions. Without background data some of the vizualizations are limited without this information. More importantly, the chemical hazard exposure calculations are not possible without the following variables provided as background data: 'weight_kg', 'height_cm', 'age_months' or 'age_years', 'country', and 'hhcode'.

For using the background data file in DASAT, the file must be in csv-format, and include the following colum titles:

Identification code: Each individual in your data should have an identification code. This code is used to connect nutrient intake data with the background data. The identification code should be named exactly 'hhcode'
Age: The age should be recorded either in years or in months. Age must be a continuous variable. DASAT app will automatically classify it into four age groups. The column that contains the information about the age in years should be named exactly 'age_years' The column that contains the information about the age in months should be named exactly 'age_months'
Height: The height should be recorded in cm. The column that contains this information should be named exactly 'height_cm'.
Weight: The application also automatically calculates BMI using height and weight for each individual. The weight should be recorded in kg. The column that contains this information should be named exactly 'weight_kg'.
country: should be recorded as the full name of the country with capital first letter.

The names of the background variables must be written in the data file exactly as indicated above.

Other possible background characteristics for the visualizations can be:

Area: can be either a name or a numerical code representing the area.
Education: must be recorded as a categorical variable.
Gender or Sex: Can be either a name or a numerical code representing gender or sex. Has to be a categorical variable.

Own data with hazard concentrations

In addition of collecting dietary data, if you have analysed pesticides or mycotoxin concentrations from food samples in your own laboratory, you can upload those measures in DASAT to explore exposure. If you are using your own data for the hazards, the uploaded file must include the following mandatory columns, with exact column names as listed below:

food_code: Food code based on the Kenya Food Composition Table. This helps link hazard data with 24h dietary recall interview data (amount of food eaten).
data_source: Specifies the origin of the data. Must be either 'literature'' or 'own_lab_test'.
matter_type: Indicates the physical form of the tested food sample. Accepted values are 'liquid' or 'solid'.
country: The country where the food sample was collected. Should be recorded as the full name of the country.
hazard_type: Type of hazard, e.g., 'pesticide' or 'mycotoxin' (as used in the FoodLeader project), or another commonly recognized hazard type.
hazard_name: The specific name of the hazard.
hazard_class: The class/category of the hazard.
mean2_converted: The mean concentration value (in mg/kg) used for exposure calculations in DASAT2.
sample_size: The number of samples used to calculate the mean value. This is important for averaging values when multiple records exist for a single food-hazard pair.

Hazard concentration data
Food names and codes

Table hazards Hazard mean of mean concentrations/food item/country

Table Food codes, names, description and food groups.