Dear all,
In the Dutch food composition database
we need to include more and more brand data in order to cover the needs
of our users. Both researchers and dietitians ask for details on mineral
and vitamin content of these foods. Unfortunatelly this information is
generally not available from the labels nor from the producers. We try
to fill in these missing data as good as possible by borrowing from similar
foods, estimations or calculations. Such calculations can be based
on the ingredients as known from the labels. By trying several senario's
we try to get the composition for the macronutrients as close as possible
to the values on the label and use the micronutrients as calculated at
the same time.
This is a time consuming approach that
gives an estimation of the composition, and it is the best we have at the
moment. To work more efficient we are looking for way to find a more automated
procedure.
A literature search so far revealed
the approach used for the NDSR database as desribed by Westrich (1994 and
1998) who developed sofware to calculate the composition of brand foods,
based on the ingredients on the label. This software is at the moment not
available to use with other e.g. European food composition databases. I
did not find any more papers on this issue.
My question to you are:
Are you aware of any other publications
on this topic?
Are you aware of software that is available
for this purpose?
Do you have specific experience with
calculating composition based on the ingredients on labels (with or without
using specific software)?
I suppose filling in missing values
of brand foods by recipe calculations is done by other food database compilers
as well. I would be glad to hear and learn from you.
Thanks in advance,
with kind regards,
Susanne
Susanne Westenbrink
Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieu (RIVM) / National Institute
for Public Health and the Environment
Centrum voor Voeding, Preventie en Zorg /
PO Box 1
3720 BA Bilthoven
The Netherlands
tel: +31 (0) 30 274 2448
fax: +31 (0) 30 274 4466
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
for more information on the Dutch food composition database see
http://www.rivm.nl/nevo
http://nevo-online.rivm.nl
Proclaimer RIVM http://www.rivm.nl/Proclaimer
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