Food Composition 279a variety of foods in Latin America. In Africa morogo
is a collective term used for a variety of indigenous
green leafy vegetables harvested from the veld. Using
scientifi c names for food items is not necessarily a
solution, since the relationship between common
name and scientifi c name is neither consistent nor
universally unique, for example the German tables
group pears and apples in the same genus, while the
British and US tables separate them.
Many structured food description systems have
been proposed. These systems should be adapted to
the specifi c purpose (e.g., nutrient content, pesticide
regulation) for which they are intended. For example,
the FAO Committee report, INFOODS Guidelines for
Describing Foods: A Systematic Approach to Des-
cribing Foods to Facilitate International Exchange of
Food Composition Data, published in 1991, was
designed to facilitate interchange of food composi-
tion data between nations and cultures. The system is
a broad, multifaceted, and open-ended description
mechanism using a string of descriptors for foods.
The International Food Data System Project
(INFOODS) Nomenclature and Terminology Com-
mittee has developed guidelines for describing foods
to facilitate international exchange of food composi-
tion data. INFOODS is a comprehensive effort, begun
within the United Nations University Food and Nutri-
tion Program to improve data on the nutrient com-
position of food from all parts of the world. In line
with the FAO’s lead role in classifi cation of agricul-
tural activities and products, and to facilitate interna-
tional data comparability and exchange, FAOSTAT
has developed and standardized the Harmonized
Commodity Description and Coding System in 1996.
The coding system has developed multipurpose
goods’ nomenclature used as the basis for trade sta-
tistical nomenclatures all over the world.
In 1975 the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
of the USA developed a controlled vocabulary for
food description, based on the principle of a faceted
thesaurus, where each food indexed is described by a
set of standard terms grouped in facets, characteristic
of the product type of a food source and process
applied to food ingredients. Examples are the biologi-
cal origin, the methods of cooking and conservation,
and technological treatments. It is an automated
method for describing, capturing, and retrieving data
about food, adapted to computerized national and
international food composition and consumption
databanks, and is therefore language independent. In
Table 11.2 an example of the application of LanguaL
is presented. More information can be obtained from
the LanguaL (Langua aLimentaria or “language of
food”) homepage (www.langual.org). LanguaL is an
international framework for food description, which
the European LanguaL Technical Committee has
administered since 1996. The thesaurus is organized
into 14 facets of the nutritional and/or hygienic
quality of foods. These include the biological origin,
the methods of preparation or conservation. The
European LanguaL Technical Committee has linked
LanguaL to other international food categorizing and
coding systems including the CIAA Food Catgorizing
System, Codex Classifi cations, and E-numbers used
for additive identifi cations.Classifi cation of foods
Most food composition tables are organized accord-
ing to the classifi cation of foods into food groups,
with food items listed alphabetically within each
food group. For example, the fruit group could start
with apples and end with tangerines. A simple coding
system could supplement the alphabetically listed
foods (used in the British tables), but it presents a
problem when a new food is introduced and all
the codes have to change. Although food groups of
different countries and organizations are never
completely identical, they are usually recognizably
similar. However, problems normally arise with the
description of cooked mixed dishes where a dish
can be equally well described by one or more food
group. In some tables, particularly those for educa-
tional purposes, there are subgroups based on the
content of specifi c nutrients such as high-fat and low-
fat dairy products. Table 11.3 provides an example of
major food groups that are used by the FAO for their
food balance sheets and regional food composition
tables.Sampling of foods for inclusion in tables
Food sampling concerns the selection of the individ-
ual units of foods, food products, or bulk foodstuffs
from the food supply or source, whether it be the
marketplace, manufacturing outlet, fi eld or the homes
of the members of the study population. (Sampling
also concerns the selection of the representative
aliquot from the individual unit or homogenized
mixture in the laboratory just before analysis.) In-