EuroFIR Synthesis report No 7: Food composition explained

Abstract

Summary Introduction Why food composition databases are important How food composition databases are produced Considerations in the use of food composition databases Conclusions and future role of EuroFIR Acknowledgements References and further reading Summary Food composition data are fundamental to the quantitative study of nutrition and are widely used in a variety of fields, including public health. However, knowledge of both the compilation and the limitations of food composition databases, which contain information on the concentrations of nutrients in food, is beneficial to ensure that users understand how to utilise the data appropriately. This guide provides background information on the importance of food composition data, and then explains the processes involved in producing and compiling these data. It then offers guidance on some of the key issues that users should be familiar with when using andmanipulating food composition data. Suggestions for further reading are given for users who may need more detailed information on specific topics and the resources produced by the EuroFIR (European Food Information Resource) Network of Excellence are highlighted.

Assessing and Improving the Quality of Food Composition Databases for Nutrition and Health Applications in Europe: The Contribution of EuroFIR

“…Similarly, end users are now more able to utilize composition data from a variety of sources, and the additional information provided by compilers through electronic resources can assist in determining the suitability of data for the intended purpose. The compilation of data from different sources has been the primary driver in ensuring that data are produced and managed in a harmonized way, using standard protocols, to arrive at comparable information (3).…”

“…2 coverage and depth of nutritional information have expanded to meet the demands of users and to reflect an increasingly diverse and changing food market. Food composition data have traditionally been collated at a national level, and although this is still largely true, recent efforts have aimed to harmonize data across countries and thereby increase comparability with other data sets (3). The quality of data and the standardization of the procedures used to compile data sets have become progressively more important as end users demand comparable, harmonized, traceable, and high-quality information.…”

Ascorbic acid content in exotic fruits: A contribution to produce quality data for food composition databases

“…FCDB are never complete and require constant update due to the introduction of new foods into the food chain (new cultivars/ breeds, processed foods, and imported foods), newly discovered food components that are associated with health effects, and constant improvements in methods to analyze foods or food components (Pennington, 2008). Data on food composition are essential for a variety of purposes in many different fields of work, such as the assessment of nutrient intakes, to assess the effect of diet on health and disease, and to support the development of dietary guidelines for population groups (Church, 2009;Williamson, 2006). FCDB contain compositional values of differing quality, which reflect the different ways that they are obtained, such as original analytical values from chemical analyses of the foods, as well as imputed values, calculated values or borrowed values (Greenfield & Southgate, 1992;Schakel, Buzzard, & Gebhardt, 1997).…”

Nutritional quality of regular and pureed menus in Canadian long term care homes: an analysis of the Making the Most of Mealtimes (M3) project

“…Further, not all commercial products, including pureed products provided a complete nutrient profile for all nutrients assessed in this study. Despite these limitations, a recipe analysis of LTC menus is an appropriate method because of the large sample size used in this study [28,39]. Use of the same software database and code-book supported consistency across the four provinces and research assistants who analyzed the menus.…”

“…A chemical analysis of duplicate portions is considered the gold standard to obtain accurate information on nutritional quality [38], and this has been done in previous research conducted on pureed foods in the LTC context [16]. However, nutrient analysis based on recipes comes with limitations, which include: accuracy of ingredients in recipes, accuracy of product labels, finding appropriate nutrient values for each ingredient, reliable and up to date nutrient composition data, converting units and household measures to weights, assigning weight change factors due to cooking the food, and errors in the nutrient analysis program based on recipe contents [37][38][39]. Further, not all commercial products, including pureed products provided a complete nutrient profile for all nutrients assessed in this study.…”