When we look at the current availability of online food composition databases across the world, we can see that the concentration in Europe is higher than in any other continent (see image below, from the EuroFIR technical website).

The Spainish Food Composition Database - Base de Datos Española de Composición de Alimentos (BDECA)

Before this initiative began in 2004, Spain had hard copy food composition tables from a number of sources. This made it difficult to be consistent when calculating the composition of foods. In addition, having only hard copy data available limits the way in which it can be used.

In 2004, Spanish EuroFIR partners at the Universities of Barcelona and Granada and Users and Advisory Group (UAG) members at the Spanish food safety authority (Agencia Española de Seguridad Alimentaría, AESA) set up a working group to create a national FCDB. This included a ‘Spanish net’ working group, to work on the online aspect of the project. The web version would be known as Red BDECA and a call for participants in the working group was put out by the Spanish Minister for Education and Science. A working group of compilers, food analysts and FCDB users has now been set up with members all over Spain. Partial funding for this initiative has been granted from the Spanish government.

The aims of Red BDECA are

·        To identify and evaluate the main sources of food
composition data in Spain

·        To promote communication within national groups and with EuroFIR

·        To create a consortium to ensure the sustainability of BDECA

·        To communicate and work with the EuroFIR Network.

Switzerland – SWISSFIR

The first European food composition tables probably originated from Switzerland. The Dutch physiologist Moleschott compiled food composition data in an extensive annex to his textbook "The physiology of food" when he was professor at the University of Zurich in the 1850s. This book was then published in Germany. The first real Swiss food composition table was developed in 1944 under the auspices of the Swiss Federal Committee on War Nutrition, but the compilation was then not carried on. The development of the current Swiss FCDB was initiated in 1993 when the Swiss Federal Committee for Nutrition recommended that a national FCDB be created. However, it was only in 1997, and in line with the involvement in the COST action 99 project, that the project to develop the current FCDB began.

Work is currently underway on correcting errors, removing items with missing values and adding new data, in addition to implementing EuroFIR standards on data interchange, value documentation and quality of data. The current project is scheduled until 2009, and there are plans to continue to improve the data beyond this date.

For more information on SwissFIR see http://www.swissfir.ethz.ch/index_EN

Food Composition tables for the Maghreb Countries

The Maghreb countries are Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia in North Africa. Work is currently underway at the University of Constantine in Algeria, in collaboration with the ALNUTS Lab (Laboratoire de recherche Alimentation, Nutrition et Santé, the laboratory for research on food, nutrition and health) to gather food composition data within the Maghreb countries. However there are a number of issues that make this a difficult project.

These three countries cover an area double that of Spain, France, Italy and Portugal put together. Diverse influences from the initial population of tribal Berbers to the Ottoman empire, the Romans, the Spanish and the French have produced a huge variety of cultural and food practices.

Currently there are great contrasts in the production and type of foods available in the Maghreb. Products may be manufactured or made in the home using traditional methods. There are also some plants that grow wild that are gathered. Many traditional recipes such as couscous and osbana (a kind of French “andouillette” but with lamb stomach and lamb intestines) are common throughout the region, but the composition of recipes varies widely. For example, 42 recipes for osbana were found, just in the east of Algeria and, when analysed for their fat, protein and energy content, each one was different with particularly wide variation in the fat (and hence energy) content.

There are also a number of different items that have the same name. For example ‘harissa’ may refer to a spicy paste made with red chilli peppers or a sweet made with semolina and syrup, and ‘pasta’ can refer to Italian-style pasta cooked in water, or north African style ones that are cooked by steaming. Conversely, one product may have many names, for example, couscous may also be referred to as kesksou, berkoukes or T’âam.

In addition to the complexity in recipes and names of foods, the costs of equipment and analysis of food composition can be prohibitively expensive. In Algeria, all the necessary equipment for conducting macronutrient analysis costs the equivalent of about 30 year’s mid level wages. Hence foreign food composition data is often used which is unlikely to provide an accurate picture of the composition of local products.

One of the initial aims of this project to create a food composition database for the Maghreb region, is to provide education on the methodology for the compilation of food composition data into databases. This will provide a foundation to start measuring the composition of food in the Maghreb directly.

Several multinational companies trade in the Maghreb region, such as Bel, Danone, Pepsi, and Maggi and data on these products can be incorporated into the Maghreb database. Researchers at the university of Constantine and ALNUTS will work with those in the food industry to get better information on the composition of manufactured foods, and to promote healthy options.

The project is also investigating how products are processed as this can affect their nutrient content. Data will be obtained on locally manufactured products that have well described production processes such as cakes, biscuits, pastas and canned products. Traditional culinary practices and gathered foods will be studied so that the nutrient content of traditional recipes can be assessed more acurately.

A network of experts ‘Management of the quality of food in the Maghreb’ will be set up throughout the region to oversee this work, supported by an international consortium including the International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies, the School of Public Health at the Free University of Brussels and the Centre for Social and Cultural Anthropology Research in Algeria. Software to allow an online portal to be created within the ALNUTS site has been simulated and this will eventually allow data on foods from the Mahgreb region to be available via the EuroFIR portal.

Conclusions

In summary, the EuroFIR Network of Excellence has stimulated efforts across Europe, to maximise the availability of food composition data. As these examples show, the challenges vary according to the situation in the country in question but one of the advantages of working within a NoE is the opportunity to work with and gain support from others working in the field.

August 2007