Vol. 1 Vol. Vol. 1 Food composition study guide – Questions & exercises uestions exercises ISBN 978-92-5-106540-2 978 9 2 5 1 0 6 5 4 0 2 FAO 2 nd I1515E/1/04.10/1 revised version Vol. 1 uestions exercises U. Ruth Charrondiere Barbara Burlingame Sally Berman Ibrahim Elmadfa THE INTERNATIONAL NETWORK OF FOOD DATA SYSTEMS FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS Rome, 20 The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers, whether or not these have been patented, does not imply that these have been endorsed or recommended by FAO in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned. The views expressed in this information product are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of FAO. E-ISBN 978-92-5-106915-8 (PDF) All rights reserved. FAO encourages reproduction and dissemination of material in this information product. Non-commercial uses will be authorized free of charge, upon request. Reproduction for resale or other commercial purposes, including educational purposes, may incur fees. Applications for permission to reproduce or disseminate FAO copyright materials, and all queries concerning rights and licences, should be addressed by e-mail to [email protected] or to the Chief, Publishing Policy and Support Branch, Office of Knowledge Exchange, Research and Extension, FAO, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00153 Rome, Italy. © FAO 2011 Introduction CONTENTS Foreword iii Acknowledgements v Introduction vii Modules Module 1 Basic principles of a food composition programme 13 Module 2 Use of food composition data 21 Module 3 Selection and nomenclature of foods in food composition 31 databases Module 4.a Component selection 43 Module 4.b Component nomenclature 51 Module 4.c Component conventions and units 65 Module 4.d Methods of analysing components 77 Module 5 Sampling 95 Module 6 Quality aspects of analytical data 109 Module 7 Resources for food composition 123 Publishing food composition data Module 8 Recipe and other calculations 133 Module 9 Food composition database management systems and 151 data interchange Module 10 Compilation and documentation 163 Module 10.a Comparing food composition databases 185 Module 10.b Case study - translating food intake into nutrient intake 191 Module 11 Quality considerations in data compilation 195 Module 12 Food biodiversity 205 i Introduction FOREWORD In the 1930s and 1940s, as the individual B vitamins were being discovered, there was a demand for knowledge of their content in foods. FAO began compiling Regional Food Tables using the limited existing data. In the 1940s, Food Analysis Institutes were established in Mexico, Cuba, Columbia and later Peru, with support from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Kellogg Foundation and US AID. The Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama (INCAP) was conceived originally as a Food Analysis Institute for Guatemala. Although its mission was broadened, analysis of Central American foods had a high priority and one of its first publications was a Food Composition Table for Central America and Panama, produced jointly with FAO. However, in the decades that followed, funding and emphasis shifted more towards nutrition studies. Food analysis and nutrient data base compilation in developing countries became limited to a few under- funded laboratories. Available food composition data were increasingly outdated and based on obsolete methods. The irony of this was that, as the studies of human nutrition increased, so did the need for reliable food composition data. In 1973, a small group of internationally involved nutritionists became concerned about the growing obsolescence and inadequacy of available food composition data, especially in developing countries, and concluded that the situation had become urgent. For example, promising studies of diet and chronic diseases were invalid because of unreliable food composition data. The group obtained administrative and financial support from the United Nations University, use of the Rockefeller Foundation Conference Center in Bellagio, Italy, as well as support from the US National Cancer Institute, United States Department of Agriculture, United States Food and Drug Administration and seven major food companies. In addition, FAO, World Health OrganiZation (WHO), International Union of Nutritional Sciences (IUNS) and International Union of Food Science and Technology (IUFoST) were represented. The sponsorship was evidence of how important this issue had become. The Bellagio meeting in 1983 proposed the formation of an International Network of Food Data Systems (INFOODS) to be administered by the United Nations University (UNU) in collaboration with FAO that would establish units for the promotion of an improved food composition database in every country and region, and that would make the best available food composition data freely accessible to nutrition and health workers in all developing countries. This would require a system of nomenclature for universal use and defining the specific content of an ideal data file. With the collaboration of FAO and UNU this was achieved in a few years, a task made feasible by the unexpected rapid development of the Internet. The recommendation to establish a Journal of Food Composition and Analysis (JFCA) was fulfilled. Later, administrative responsibility for INFOODS and JFCA was also assumed by FAO since 1999. Training has not been neglected. The biennial training workshops at Wageningen University have played an important role as has the basic text book by Greenfield and Southgate (2003) Food composition data production, management and use. Graduates of the Wageningen course have replicated it several times in most of the regions, but financial support for regional courses has been increasingly difficult to obtain. It is now increasingly recogniZed that, while nutritional deficiencies remain important in some populations, nutrition is an important factor in essentially all infectious and chronic diseases in all populations. The more that is invested in finding out which nutrients and other ingredients of food are responsible, the more important reliable food composition databases become and the greater the need for well trained analysts and food database managers and users. This Food Composition Study Guide comes at an opportune time. Not only is the role of human nutrition in determining current and future health recognized more widely than ever before, but also distance-learning tools such as these are in increasing demand and, in some cases, replace classroom learning. It is an important contribution! Nevin S. Scrimshaw Ph.D., M.D., M.P.H. President, International Nutrition Foundation Institute Professor Emeritus. Massachusetts Institute of Technology iii Introduction ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We are grateful to all those who contributed to the development of the Food Composition Study Guide, particularly to all peer reviewers (Gary Beecher, Eliana Bistrich Giuntini, Rakesh Bhardwaj, Carol Byrd- Bredbenner, Isabel Castanheira, Paolo Colombani, Roger Djoule, Marie Claude Dop, Lois Englberger, Nino dePablo, Jean Francois Hausman, David Haytowitz, Paul Hulshof, Venkatesh Iyenger, Kunchit Judprasong, Jehangir Khan Khali, John Klensin, Harriet Kuhnlein, T. Longvah, Alison Paul, Pamela Pehrsson, Jean Pennington, Janka Porubska, Prapasri Puwastien, Hettie Schönfeldt, Louwrens Smit, Ian Unwin, Ana Vasquez-Caicedo, Elizabete WenZel), to those who contributed to its content (Marie Luccioni, Edouard Oddo, Enrica Biondi, Prapasri Puwastien) and those who tested the modules: George Annor, Rekia Belahsen, Natasha Danster, Sandra Eisenwagen, Heinz Freisling, Melanie Fröhler, Ingrid Führhacker, Verena Hasenegger, Sonja Kanzler, T. Longvah, Susanne Lüftenegger, Katharina Maierhofer, Elinor Medhammar, Beatrice Mouille, Emma Nilsson, Verena Nowak, Nino dePablo, Doris Rittenschober, Esther Sakyi-Dawson, Annalisa Sivieri, Francisca Smith, Renee Sobolewski, Barbara Stadlmayr, Ramani WijesinhaBettoni as well as the participants of the food composition courses in Bratislava, Slovak Republic (2008), Teheran, Iran (2008), Cotonou, Benin (2009), Accra, Ghana (2009), Pretoria, South Africa (2010), and at the University of Vienna, Austria (2008, 2009). We are also grateful to Omar Bolbol for the cover design and to Giuseppina Di Felice for the layout. v Introduction INTRODUCTION Since the establishment of the International Network of Food Data Systems (INFOODS) in 1984, there has been a significant improvement in the quality and availability of food composition data worldwide. INFOODS has developed standards and guidelines for the collection, compilation and reporting of food composition data. The network collaborates in the dissemination of knowledge of food composition and standards through regional training courses on the production and management of food composition data. Classroom-based food composition training courses started in 1992. Since then, nine courses have been held in Wageningen, the Netherlands, and 13 courses in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Near East and Oceania. The courses are based on the book Food composition data production,