Eating occasion edits: Multiple integrity checks are
conducted to make sure that meal names and times were
coded correctly because these variables are frequently
important in secondary research using food survey data.
Edit checks identify meals reported at unusual times such
as breakfast in the evening or dinner in the morning, and
24-h recalls with these situations are reviewed for
possible data collection errors. An edit guideline, similar
to the earlier example, aids in making decisions to
change values. No changes are made unless mistakes are
obvious or coded responses are not credible. For example,
a school lunch designated at 12:00 a.m., or a school
breakfast at 7:30 p.m., would be changed to 12:00 p.m. and
7:30 a.m., respectively. Reports of breakfast, lunch, or
dinner at more than one time of day are also reviewed.
Since respondents are encouraged to recall foods in ways
that help them remember everything they ate, sometimes
they report each food within a meal at different, but
close, times. These situations are edited so that all
items within the meal reflect the same time to facilitate
later use of the data. Other eating occasion edits identify
questionable meal names; for example, if an eating
occasion is coded as a ‘‘drink’’ and no beverage is reported
at this time, the meal name is changed to ‘‘snack’’. Foods
consumed at the same time of the day but coded
with different meal names are also identified and, all foods
are changed to the occasion reported for the majority of
the foods.