Measuring the amount of fibre, protein or caffeine in the food we eat has become easier following the release of Food Standards Australia New Zealand’s (FSANZ) refreshed nutrient database.
Chief Executive of FSANZ, Mark Booth delivered the news, saying a number of changes had been made to the Australian Food Composition Database (previously called NUTTAB), including an improved web interface and enhanced search capability.
Mr Booth said the database had also been changed to include custom serve sizes so users can easily calculate the nutrient content based on what they eat in grams or millilitres.
“Common serve sizes are also provided such as a 375 mL can or 600 mL bottle, in addition to 100 mL,” Mr Booth said.
He said new data had been included for highly consumed foods such as milk and bread and new foods had been added such as rocket, quinoa, oat and rice milk, gluten free flour and pasta, and green tea.
“Identifying foods has been improved by assigning each food a unique code (the Public Food Key) which replaces the previously used Food ID,” Mr Booth said.
“The Key will be consistent across all of our food composition databases.”
He said a core set of 54 nutrients had been provided for all foods, meaning every food in the database has a value for at least those 54 nutrients.
“Additional nutrients are also reported where quality data is available.”
Mr Booth said that whether your interest was as a researcher, dietitian, nutritionist or simply someone wanting to find out what is in the food you’re eating, the new database was worth checking out.
He said the Australian Food Composition Database is available free of charge on the foodstandards website as a searchable database or downloadable electronic files.
It can be accessed at this PS News link.
