Nutrient composition of fresh produce—Assessing variability between European countries to substantiate nutrition and health claims

Abstract

Nutrition and health claims can help translate nutrition and health recommendations into easier-to-access messages at the point of sale. National Food Composition Databases (FCDBs) are the main and most widely available source of nutrient information for unpacked foods, such as fruits and vegetables. This paper outlines the variability of the nutrient content in fresh fruits and vegetables from FCDBs, both in the Euregio Meuse-Rhine and in the top eight European producers. All to analyse whether these variations would be translated into practical differences in the nutrition and health claims allowed in these European countries. The results show that vitamins presented the highest variability, particularly vitamin C, and differences were more prominent for vegetables than for fruits. These differences also extended to the use of claims between countries, particularly for folate and vitamin C. Moreover, the lack of item representation at the cultivar level affected the regional representativeness of fresh produce varieties and derived used of nutrition and health claims. Finally, widely available, and cost-efficient nutrient composition sources could economically benefit small and middle-scale producers to sustain nutrition and health claims on their products.