Introduction to Human Nutrition

290 Introduction to Human Nutrition

international collaboration has considerably improved
the development and compatibility of food composi-
tion data. It is essential for the development of nutri-
tional sciences that this resource be maintained and
improved to serve at both national and international
levels. The quest for continued improvement in
quality of representative food composition data are at
the core of most food composition programs.

Recent advances in food composition

Harmonizing of regional food
composition tables
High-quality, comprehensive food composition data
for foods commonly consumed is important across
an ever increasing list of applications, e.g., in epide-
miological research studying the effect of specifi c
foods on health and well-being. Integrated, compre-
hensive, and validated food composition databanks
from individual countries within a region will con-
tribute immeasurably towards shifting the barriers of
current scientifi c understanding. Towards this end

Europe has moved much closer to obtaining this goal,

preceded by the ASEAN Food Composition Tables

(2000) (www.fao.org/infoods/tables_asia_en.stm).

Focusing on biodiversity within species

The FAO has begun a study on the development of

baseline data for the Nutritional Indicator for

Biodiversity – 1. food composition. The aim is to

collect food composition data at the inter- and intra-

species level for regions and countries. The process

includes obtaining information on food composition

data at the interspecies level (variety, cultivar, breed)

and on underutilized and wild foods at the species

level, as well as reviewing all available food composi-

tion data at national, regional, and international

levels. The data collected are reported in a template,

naming the country and the INFOODS regional data

centre. Table 11.8 gives an example of the format of

reporting at the national level. For the baseline report-

ing, at the beginning of 2008 data from 254 publica-

tions from 49 countries were included.

Table 11.8 Template for reporting on the nutritional indicator of biodiversity in the food composition literature

Publication Material examined References

Number of foods on subspecies

level with following number of

components

1 2–9 10–30 > 30

1. Food composition databases (FCDB)
   Reference database of national FCDB
   User database of national FCDB
   Other national FCDB


2. Literature
   National peer-reviewed journals Indicate journals and years
   National laboratory reports Indicate laboratories and years
   Reports from national research institutes Indicate research institutes and years
   National conference presentations (incl. posters) Indicate conferences and years
   Theses Indicate universities and years
   Other (specify) Indicate publication and years
   Material examined
   Letter Material examined
   A
   B
   References
   Number Full reference DOI, CiteXplore
   ID^1 , other
   international
   publication
   code
   1
   2