Despite evidence for favourable health outcomes associated with plant-based diets, a database containing the plant and animal content of all foods eaten is required to undertake a reliable assessment of plant-based diets within a population. This study aimed to expand an existing Australian food database to include the plant and animal content of all whole foods, beverages, multi-ingredient products and mixed dishes. Twenty-three plant- and animal-based food group classifications were first defined. The food servings per 100 g of each product were then systematically calculated using either a recipe-based approach, a food label-based approach, estimates based on similar products or online recipes. Overall, 4687 (83·5 %) foods and beverages were identified as plant or plant-containing products, and 3701 (65·9 %) were animal or animal-containing products. Results highlighted the versatility of plant and animal ingredients as they were found in various foods across many food categories, including savoury and sweet foods, as well as discretionary and core foods. For example, over 97 % of animal fat-containing foods were found in major food groups outside the AUSNUT 2011–2013 ‘fats and oils’ group. Surprisingly, fruits, nuts and seeds were present in a greater percentage of discretionary products than in core foods and beverages. This article describes a systematic approach that is suitable for the development of other novel food databases. This database allows more accurate quantitative estimates of plant and animal intakes, which is significant for future epidemiological and clinical research aiming to investigate plant-based diets and their related health outcomes.

The current definition of dietary fibre was adopted by the Codex Alimentarius Commission in 2009, but implementation requires updating food composition databases with values based on appropriate analysis methods. Previous data on population intakes of dietary fibre fractions are sparse. We studied the intake and sources of total dietary fibre (TDF) and dietary fibre fractions insoluble dietary fibre (IDF), dietary fibre soluble in water but insoluble in 76 % aqueous ethanol (SDFP) and dietary fibre soluble in water and soluble in 76 % aqueous ethanol (SDFS) in Finnish children based on new CODEX-compliant values of the Finnish National Food Composition Database Fineli. Our sample included 5193 children at increased genetic risk of type 1 diabetes from the Type 1 Diabetes Prediction and Prevention birth cohort, born between 1996 and 2004. We assessed the intake and sources based on 3-day food records collected at the ages of 6 months, 1, 3 and 6 years. Both absolute and energy-adjusted intakes of TDF were associated with age, sex and breast-feeding status of the child. Children of older parents, parents with a higher level of education, non-smoking mothers and children with no older siblings had higher energy-adjusted TDF intake. IDF was the major dietary fibre fraction in non-breastfed children, followed by SDFP and SDFS. Cereal products, fruits and berries, potatoes and vegetables were major food sources of dietary fibre. Breast milk was a major source of dietary fibre in 6-month-olds due to its human milk oligosaccharide content and resulted in high SDFS intakes in breastfed children.

Despite the rich biodiversity of the African continent and the tremendous progress so far made in food production, Africa is still struggling with the problems of food insecurity, hunger and malnutrition. To combat these problems, the production and consumption of nutritious and safe foods need to be promoted. This cannot be achieved without reliable data on the quantity and quality of nutrients and other components provided through these foods. Food composition data (FCD) are compiled as food composition tables (FCT) or food composition databases (FCDB). These are subsequently used for a variety of purposes, ranging from clinical practice, research, public health/education, food industry to planning and policy, as well as nutrition monitoring and surveillance. To perform these functions effectively, the importance of reliable FCT/FCDB cannot be overemphasised. Poor quality FCT/FCDB have serious consequences on the health of the population, and provide skew evidence towards developing nutrition and health-related policies. The present paper reviews different methods to generate FCT/FCDB, their importance and use in assisting nutrition/dietetic professionals in solving Africa's nutrition problems; current status of FCT/FCDB generation, compilation and dissemination in Africa, constraint to their use by professionals and the role of FAO/INFOODS/AFROFOODS and other stakeholders towards improvement and future initiatives. The information provided will create awareness on the need for up-to-date and high-quality FCT/FCDB and facilitate the identification of data gaps and prioritisation of future efforts in FCD generation, compilation and dissemination in Africa and subsequent strategies for the alleviation of the food and nutrition problems in Africa.

As FFQ are subject to measurement error, associations between self-reported intake by FFQ and outcome measures should be adjusted by correction factors obtained from a validation study. Whether the correction is adequate depends on the characteristics of the reference method used in the validation study. Preferably, reference methods should (1) be unbiased and (2) have uncorrelated errors with those in the FFQ. The aim of the present study was to assess the validity of the duplicate portion (DP) technique as a reference method and compare its validity with that of a commonly used reference method, the 24 h recall (24hR), for protein, K and Na using urinary markers as the unbiased reference method. For 198 subjects, two DP, two FFQ, two urinary biomarkers and between one and fifteen 24hR (web based and/or telephone based) were collected within 1·5 years. Multivariate measurement error models were used to estimate bias, error correlations between FFQ and DP or 24hR, and attenuation factors of these methods. The DP was less influenced by proportional scaling bias (0·58 for protein, 0·72 for K and 0·52 for Na), and correlated errors between DP and FFQ were lowest (protein 0·28, K 0·17 and Na 0·19) compared with the 24hR. Attenuation factors (protein 0·74, K 0·54 and Na 0·43) also indicated that the DP performed better than the 24hR. Therefore, the DP is probably the best available reference method for FFQ validation for nutrients that currently have no generally accepted recovery biomarker.

The Finnish national food composition database Fineli® was updated with recent analytical values for plant sterols (PS) (sitosterol, campesterol, stigmasterol, avenasterol, brassicasterols and stanols) and cholesterol. The quality of the new analytical data was assessed. The aims of the present study were: (1) to compare the effect of old and new database values on PS and cholesterol intakes based on average per capita food consumption data; (2) to estimate the current intake and major sources of these compounds in various population groups according to the national FINDIET 1997 survey data. The intake of total PS was 305 mg/d for men and 237 mg/d for women. The respective intakes for cholesterol were 284 mg/d and 201 mg/d. Women had a higher density of PS in their diets than men, whereas the cholesterol density in the diets did not differ between genders. Cereals, margarine, vegetables and vegetable oils were the main food sources of PS. Meat, meat products and eggs were the main sources of cholesterol. A 9 % greater PS intake estimate was obtained with the new PS database compared with the old PS database, probably due to minor methodological differences between the new and old analyses. Notable changes in analytical methods suggest a lower value (−19 %) for cholesterol intake calculated from the new database compared with the old one. We conclude that researchers can have confidence in the new values for PS and cholesterol, because systematic evaluation of the new analytical values showed them to be of high quality.

Evidence indicates that cruciferous vegetables are protective against a range of cancers with glucosinolates and their breakdown products considered the biologically active constituents. To date, epidemiological studies have not investigated the intakes of these constituents due to a lack of food composition databases. The aim of the present study was to develop a database for the glucosinolate content of cruciferous vegetables that can be used to quantify dietary exposure for use in epidemiological studies of diet–disease relationships. Published food composition data sources for the glucosinolate content of cruciferous vegetables were identified and assessed for data quality using established criteria. Adequate data for the total glucosinolate content were available from eighteen published studies providing 140 estimates for forty-two items. The highest glucosinolate values were for cress (389 mg/100 g) while the lowest values were for Pe-tsai chinese cabbage (20 mg/100 g). There is considerable variation in the values reported for the same vegetable by different studies, with a median difference between the minimum and maximum values of 5·8-fold. Limited analysis of cooked cruciferous vegetables has been conducted; however, the available data show that average losses during cooking are approximately 36 %. This is the first attempt to collate the available literature on the glucosinolate content of cruciferous vegetables. These data will allow quantification of intakes of the glucosinolates, which can be used in epidemiological studies to investigate the role of cruciferous vegetables in cancer aetiology and prevention.