Studies in several Pacific Islands in the last three decades have shown incremental declines in nutritional health of adults. The westernisation of traditional diets has resulted in developing nations showing rapid increases in chronic diet-related diseases such as non-insulin related diabetes, coronary heart disease, hypertension, stroke, some cancers and gout. In some countries, such as Nauru, the decline has been dramatic with one in two adults suffering from diabetes where once the disease was unknown.

In 1987, the South Pacific Commission (SPC) set up a Pacific Islands Food Composition Programme (PIFCP) to develop a database of the composition of Pacific Island foods. Some information has come from direct analysis (ACIAR project 8204) but for other crops only indirect data is available based on similar foods grown elsewhere. PIFCP has supported the establishment of a Nutritional Analysis Unit at the University of the South Pacific (USP), Suva, Fiji.