Development Of Food Composition Database Research Articles

Capacity development in food and nutrition in central and Eastern Europe: A decade of achievements

This article summarizes the activities performed by the Network for Capacity Development in Nutrition in Central and Eastern Europe and Balkan countries (NCDNCEE) in the past decade. The article gives a retrospective of the achievements and challenges in building capacity in nutrition research.Recognizing the lack of capacity and incoherent nutritional situation in CEE/BC, the United Nations University (UNU), Food & Nutrition Programme and the UN Standing Committee on Nutrition (SCN) encouraged the formation of NCDNCEE in 2005, which became CAPNUTRA in 2012.The network’s aim was to initiate and support tailor-made activities for capacity development in food & nutrition in research and training in CEE/BC. To identify the challenges and needs of nutrition research in the region, the network performed inventories on existence of food composition databases, food systems elements, dietary surveys, micronutrient recommendations, application of dietary assessment methods and grey literature. Further on, the network focused on the development of food composition databases and concomitant data management software, the Diet Assess & Plan platform for food consumption collection, dietary intake assessment and nutrition planning. These and other elements form the Balkan Food Platform, which underpins harmonized nutrition research in CEE/BC. Among key actions promoted by the platform are EFSA-supported dietary surveys conducted in four Balkan countries, on children and adults, in which food consumption data are collected and analysed in a harmonized way. Cooperation with FAO and active participation in international research projects enhanced the exchange of information and knowledge and brought international recognition to the CAPNUTRA network.

12th IFDC 2017 Special Issue – Challenges facing the establishment and management of a national food composition database in Argentina

Food composition data play a key role in areas such as nutrition, agriculture, food industry, and trade. Therefore it is still essential to have recent and reliable data on the composition of the main foodstuffs that a country produces and consumes. In Argentina the objective is to form a national network of institutions to provide information and data to a national food composition database (NFCDB), established in a national government institution and as an ongoing activity with stable funding. ARGENFOODS promotes these activities, and successfully completed the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Regional Project entitled “Development of Food Composition Databases and Tables of Argentina, Chile and Paraguay to Strengthen International Trade and Consumer Protection”. Argentina has the multiple tools and trained human resources necessary to complete a National Project. A law proposal presented by the working group of ARGENFOODS to the national Senate establishes “[a] National Data Base for Food Composition [to be] created in the scope of the National Executive Power”, and is undergoing the approval process. Argentina is thus in a situation that could be termed contradictory and deficient, since it has all the tools to build an NFCDB, but has not achieved this goal despite the fact that the demand for the information is increasing. This is an unmet need to which the different actors involved must commit and contribute.

FOOD COMPOSITION DATABASE IN MACEDONIA- NEED AND IMPORTANCE

Food Composition Databases (FCDBs) represent fundamental information resources for nutrition science. The information is used for wide spectrum of purposes i.e. for food labelling, product development and innovation, dietary treatment, consumer information and research. Thus, high quality food composition data are fundamental to most issues related to nutrition and health and their importance is increasingly being recognized for agriculture, trade and economics. INFOODS is the International Network of Food Data Systems. It is a worldwide network of food composition experts aiming to improve the quality, availability, reliability and use of food composition data. Twenty-Eight European countries has developed the Food Composition Databases. The development of Food composition databases depends on the combination of the expertise of a diversity of specialists with professional background from agronomy, analytical and food chemistry, food technology, dietetics and nutrition to database and quality management and information technology. To support this European Food Information Resource (EuroFIR) has developed various training tools for the production and use of food composition data. However, many countries in Balkan region do not have any form of national food composition data or have been using borrowed information. This is a problem because people need essential information on food composition as well as an access to the information in order they can influence their own dietary patterns. Republic of Macedonia needs to move forward and improve the contribution to development of the FCDB and share it with different stakeholders. There is a need to prepare and implement measures like: increasing capacity development in generating and compiling food composition data; strengthen collaboration with other national and international bodies, organizations and projects working on food composition issues; incorporation of food composition into formal education curricula of schools and universities in nutrition, food science, dietetics and grants to various training and capacity building activities.

Development of rice reference material and its use for evaluation of analytical performance of food analysis laboratories

Data quality is one of the major concerns in development of food composition database and to editors of many peer-reviewed journals in accepting a scientific paper for publication. Regular use of a reference material and participation in a proficiency testing programme could improve the reliability of the analytical data. The objectives of this project were to prepare rice test material with assigned values and to use it to assess the analytical performance of laboratories which are involved in research and analysis of rice. The international guidelines, ISO Guide 35, ISO 13528 and ISO Guide 43, were followed as much as possible throughout the preparation of the reference material and the laboratory performance study. Brown rice (Jasmine variety) was ground to particle size which passed completely through a sieve with pore size 250 μm and packed in laminated aluminum foil bags under vacuum. Based on the analyses of representative nutrients – moisture, protein, iron, zinc and vitamin B1 – the samples were demonstrated homogeneous. Ten expert laboratories from various countries, 36 laboratories from Thailand, and 16 laboratories from ASEAN and Asia registered for the laboratory performance study. The samples were sent for analysis of selected proximate composition (moisture, protein, dietary fibre and ash), two minerals (iron, zinc), and one labile nutrient (vitamin B1) using routine analytical methods. The assigned values of the nutrients in the test materials, as robust mean ± robust SD or predicted SD, were established with their uncertainties. For proximate composition, 67–87% of participating laboratories showed good analytical performance. However, many of them showed questionable and unsatisfactory performance on the analyses of dietary fibre (55%) and vitamin B1 (47%). The evaluation of the results of moisture, protein and iron with their uncertainties against the assigned values of the test material using En score was also demonstrated. Finally, the consensus values of nutrients in the rice sample as mean ± SD were developed from the analytical results of laboratories with good performance for both within- and between-laboratories. This test material can be used as a reference material for internal and external quality control systems to improve the quality of the analytical data.

The history of food composition databases

Summary Food composition databases provide detailed information on the concentrations of nutrients and nutritionally important components in foods. Information on the nutritional composition of foods forms the basis of the quantitative study of nutrition, and is widely used in a variety of fields, including epidemiological research, clinical practice and health promotion, policy and food manufacturing. This review details key milestones in the development of food composition databases, focusing on the history of the well‐known and highly regarded McCance and Widdowson's The Composition of Foods series. Evolving requirements for food composition data are outlined together with changes in the format over time. Finally, the importance of networks and cooperations, such as the new European Food Information Resource (EuroFIR) Network of Excellence, in supporting and improving food composition data is discussed.

Advancing zoo animal nutrition through global synergy

Global communication and dissemination of information are two fundamental factors that are necessary to advance zoo animal nutrition. To achieve global synergy for nutrition, regional needs must be identified, modified for zoo application and linked through the proper Internet portals so that the information is readily available to the international zoo community. For all groups of animals, the continued development of food composition databases, updated as and when more information becomes available, is an important part of this desired synergy. If balanced nutrition for wild animals in captivity at a global level is to be achieved, then a heightened recognition of the value of implementing science-based nutrition into animal-management programmes and enhanced levels of electronic communication are essential.