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Food Composition and Dedicated Databases: Key Tools for Human Health...
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Food Composition and Dedicated Databases: Key Tools for Human Health and Public Nutrition (2nd Edition)

A special issue of Nutrients (ISSN 2072-6643). This special issue belongs to the section "Nutritional Policies and Education for Health Promotion".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 November 2024) | Viewed by 14139

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Alessandra Durazzo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
CREA-Research Centre for Food and Nutrition, Via Ardeatina 546, 00178 Rome, Italy
Interests: bioactive compounds; natural products; nutraceuticals; antioxidants; dietary supplements; food quality; nutrition; food composition databases; bioavailability, metabolic pathway; nanoformulations
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Massimo Lucarini

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
CREA-Research Centre for Food and Nutrition, Via Ardeatina 546, 00178 Rome, Italy
Interests: natural compounds; nutraceuticals; natural products; food science and nutrition; food composition databases; bioaccesibility; dietary intake
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

To better understand nutrition, food chemistry, and medicine, it is necessary to study bioactive constituents, which requires detailed knowledge and coverage on the composition of compounds of nutritional and nutraceutical character; the need for the categorization of substances and for the implementation of specific and dedicated databases has emerged from both analytical data and collected data taken from the literature throughout harmonized and standardized approaches.

Food Composition Databases (FCDBs) aim to produce, collect, and present data in a standardized format to “speak a common language” that allows for the comparison of data from different national databases to foster exchange and collaboration between countries. At the same time, research is focused on the development of databases and models on metabolites in humans and novel dietary biomarkers.

The development of databases of nutrients, bioactive compounds, and metabolites are key tools for human health and public nutrition and represent resources for a wide range of applications in food, pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, epidemiology, and medicinal areas.

The initial construction of a dataset of specific nutrients and bioactive compounds or class bioactive compounds and their inclusion in a specified and standardized database will be monitored; in addition, updating and expanding the comprehensive database is welcome. Additionally, a database dedicated to a peculiar and characteristic category of foods: traditional, certified, and recipe databases are welcome.

The design and construction of food databases foremost requires the exact identification of foods throughout an adequate food nomenclature and a precise description. There is a consensus on the importance of the nomenclature, description, and classification of foods and food groups. A coherent food description system is essential for comparing and/or exchanging data from different databases, and data of the same nature from different organizations and countries. Matching procedures for linking different databases are here encouraged.

Food composition and other dedicated databases as well as metabolomic databases and biomarker repositories represent a unique data resource for nutritionists, dietitians, and researchers for several applications, i.e., dietary assessment, exposure studies, food labelling, health claims processes, epidemiological studies, and clinical trials.

Applications and uses of databases from nutrition and medicine-related fields in other contexts are here explored. Current research trends are defined.

Dr. Alessandra Durazzo
Dr. Massimo Lucarini
Guest Editors

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • food data
  • food groups
  • nutrients
  • natural substances
  • classification
  • categorization
  • food composition databases
  • dedicated databases
  • metabolites
  • dietary biomarkers
  • nutrition knowledge
  • human health
  • epidemiology studies
  • applications and benefits
  • health claims
  • food labelling
  • public health
  • health promotion

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Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

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27 pages, 1976 KiB  
Article
Nutri-Score in the European Food Retail Supply: A Potential Incentive for Food Reformulation?
by Elly Steenbergen, Joline W. J. Beulens and Elisabeth H. M. Temme
Nutrients 2024, 16(23), 4184; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu16234184 - 3 Dec 2024
Viewed by 1891
Abstract
Background: To improve consumers’ diet, policy measures such as food reformulation strategies and front-of-pack nutritional labels (FOPNLs) are implemented, aiming to guide consumers’ food choice and to stimulate an improvement in food composition by manufacturers. The FOPNL Nutri-Score has been implemented in several [...] Read more.
Background: To improve consumers’ diet, policy measures such as food reformulation strategies and front-of-pack nutritional labels (FOPNLs) are implemented, aiming to guide consumers’ food choice and to stimulate an improvement in food composition by manufacturers. The FOPNL Nutri-Score has been implemented in several European countries. Changes in food compositions in relation to the Nutri-Score over time have been limitedly studied. This study evaluates food compositions in Europe over time, and if changes in compositions of the food supply could have potentially resulted in changes in Nutri-Score classifications of foods. Materials and Methods: Food composition data were available from EUREMO, from which bread products, breakfast cereals, hot sauces, and processed potato products from Austria, Belgium, Finland, Italy, and the United Kingdom from 2019 to 2021 were selected (n = 2260). Of these countries, only Belgium had implemented the Nutri-Score in 2019. Distributions of food compositions and Nutri-Score classifications were calculated and changes in median salt, sugar, and saturated fatty acids content were plotted by food group, country and year. Distribution of the final sum of Nutri-Score points was plotted by nutrient, food group, country and year. Results: Overall, more favourable Nutri-Score classifications (i.e., towards Nutri-Score classification A) were observed in most of the selected food groups and countries over the years, due to the influence of specific nutrients such as salt in breakfast cereals (lower median of 0.1–0.4 g/100 g) and processed potato products (lower median of 0.1–1.2 g/100 g); and sugar in processed potato products (lower median of 0.1–1.9 g/100 g) and bread products (lower median of 0.7–2.2 g/100 g). For nutrient contents in other food groups, no consistent changes were observed. Conclusions: Changes in the compositions of the food supply resulted in favourable changes in Nutri-Score classifications, suggesting a potential for food reformulation. Monitoring after the actual implementation of Nutri-Score is recommended. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Food Composition and Dedicated Databases: Key Tools for Human Health and Public Nutrition (2nd Edition))
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18 pages, 274 KiB  
Article
Development of a Database of LanguaLTM and FoodEx2 Codes of 50 Ready-to-Eat Products
by Alessandra Durazzo, Tommaso D’Andrea, Paolo Gabrielli, Niccolò Pilla, Altero Aguzzi, Massimo Lucarini and Gianni Sagratini
Nutrients 2024, 16(8), 1151; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu16081151 - 12 Apr 2024
Viewed by 1295
Abstract
Ready-to-eat (RTE) and ready-to-heat (RTH) dishes are food items that help save time, physical energy, and mental effort in all food-related activities. Convenience of use, variability of supply, and adaptability to different consumption occasions have led to an increase of acceptance among consumers [...] Read more.
Ready-to-eat (RTE) and ready-to-heat (RTH) dishes are food items that help save time, physical energy, and mental effort in all food-related activities. Convenience of use, variability of supply, and adaptability to different consumption occasions have led to an increase of acceptance among consumers through the years. Specialized databases can help in this context, where food composition databases can provide information and data to create sustainable nutritional models by reducing the now growing number of chronic diseases. This paper aims at developing a database of LanguaLTM and FoodEx2 codes of 50 food preparations and ready-to-eat dishes designed for consumption outside the home. LanguaLTM, as well as FoodEx2, are classification and description systems for indexing, in the sense of a systematic description, of foods based on a hierarchical model (parent–child relationship), thus facilitating the international exchange of data on food composition, consumption, assessing chronic and/or acute exposure to a certain agent, and not least the assessment of nutrient intake. The database, here presented, consists of the codes of fifty ready-to-eat products present on the market in Italy, obtained by using the two mostly commonly used and widely recognized coding systems: LanguaLTM and FoodEx2. This database represents a tool and a guideline for other compilers and users to apply coding systems to ready-to-eat products. Moreover, it can be represented a resource for several applications, such as nutritional cards, nutritional facts, food labels, or booklet and brochures for promotion of food products, to be used at health and food nutrition interface, useful for consumers, dieticians, and food producers. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Food Composition and Dedicated Databases: Key Tools for Human Health and Public Nutrition (2nd Edition))
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12 pages, 3233 KiB  
Article
Healthy Snack Project: Improving Healthy Choices through Multidisciplinary Food Education Actions
by Giuseppina Federici, Vincenzo Marcotrigiano, Erica Bino, Alberto Lovat, Angela Padoin, Gerardo Salerno, Pamela D’Incà, Christian Napoli and Sandro Cinquetti
Nutrients 2024, 16(2), 255; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu16020255 - 14 Jan 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2279
Abstract
School is one of the main settings where it is useful to guarantee health promotion actions, as it is well known that diet and eating habits that are shaped in the early stages of life are maintained through adulthood. The objective of this [...] Read more.
School is one of the main settings where it is useful to guarantee health promotion actions, as it is well known that diet and eating habits that are shaped in the early stages of life are maintained through adulthood. The objective of this study was to carry out the “Healthy Snack” project to promote nutritional education in primary schools in the Province of Belluno in the 2022–2023 school year, in which 925 students were enrolled, and to evaluate the intervention in terms of changes in eating habits during their school breaks. Following the workshops performed by the healthcare workers (HCWs), medals were awarded, taking into account the quality of the participating students’ mid-morning snacks, considering the food pyramid. The results collected in the annual survey period were related to the type and quantity of snacks consumed at school, and allowed students to gain a final score, comparing the period before and after the educational intervention to demonstrate the effectiveness of the actions promoted by HCWs and the increased nutritional quality of meals. In light of this evidence, public health strategies must continue to emphasize the importance of implementing health promotion interventions and actions aimed at children in order to prevent weight gain in this age group, and the potential development of cardiometabolic pathologies over their lifetime. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Food Composition and Dedicated Databases: Key Tools for Human Health and Public Nutrition (2nd Edition))
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13 pages, 3444 KiB  
Article
Application of a Two-Dimensional Mapping-Based Visualization Technique: Nutrient-Value-Based Food Grouping
by Ryota Wakayama, Satoshi Takasugi, Keiko Honda and Shigehiko Kanaya
Nutrients 2023, 15(23), 5006; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15235006 - 4 Dec 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1825
Abstract
Worldwide, several food-based dietary guidelines, with diverse food-grouping methods in various countries, have been developed to maintain and promote public health. However, standardized international food-grouping methods are scarce. In this study, we used two-dimensional mapping to classify foods based on their nutrient composition. [...] Read more.
Worldwide, several food-based dietary guidelines, with diverse food-grouping methods in various countries, have been developed to maintain and promote public health. However, standardized international food-grouping methods are scarce. In this study, we used two-dimensional mapping to classify foods based on their nutrient composition. The Standard Tables of Food Composition in Japan were used for mapping with a novel technique—t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding—to visualize high-dimensional data. The mapping results showed that most foods formed food group-based clusters in the Standard Tables of Food Composition in Japan. However, the beverages did not form large clusters and demonstrated scattered distribution on the map. Green tea, black tea, and coffee are located within or near the vegetable cluster whereas cocoa is near the pulse cluster. These results were ensured by the k-nearest neighbors. Thus, beverages made from natural materials can be categorized based on their origin. Visualization of food composition could enable an enhanced comprehensive understanding of the nutrients in foods, which could lead to novel aspects of nutrient-value-based food classifications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Food Composition and Dedicated Databases: Key Tools for Human Health and Public Nutrition (2nd Edition))
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11 pages, 1097 KiB  
Article
Food Composition Databases (FCDBs): A Bibliometric Analysis
by Andy Wai Kan Yeung
Nutrients 2023, 15(16), 3548; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15163548 - 11 Aug 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3426
Abstract
Food composition databases (FCDBs) are important tools that provide information on the nutritional content of foods. Previously, it was largely unclear what nutritional contents and which FCDBs were involved in highly cited papers. The bibliometric study aimed to identify the most productive authors, [...] Read more.
Food composition databases (FCDBs) are important tools that provide information on the nutritional content of foods. Previously, it was largely unclear what nutritional contents and which FCDBs were involved in highly cited papers. The bibliometric study aimed to identify the most productive authors, institutions, and journals. The chemicals/chemical compounds with high averaged citations and FCDBs used by highly cited papers were identified. In July 2023, the online database Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) was queried to identify papers related to FCDBs. A total of 803 papers were identified and analyzed. The first paper indexed in WoSCC was published in 1992 by Pennington, which described the usefulness of FCDB for researchers to identify core foods for their own studies. In that paper, the FCDB described was the USDA 1987–88 NFCS (the United States Department of Agriculture 1987–88 Nationwide Food Consumption Survey). The most productive author was Dr. Paul M. Finglas, the Head of the Food Databanks National Capability at the Quadram Institute (Norwich, UK) and the Managing Director of EuroFIR. His most cited paper among this dataset was about the development of an online Irish food composition database together with EuroFIR. The most productive institutions were the USDA and the World Health Organization (WHO) instead of universities. Flavonoid was the most recurring chemical class among the highly cited ones. The anti-oxidative properties and protective effects against heart disease and cancer of flavonoids might be some of the reasons for their popularity in research. Among the highly cited papers, the most heavily used FCDBs were the USDA database for the flavonoid content of selected foods, Fineli, the USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference (USNDB), EuroFIR eBASIS-Bioactive Substances in Food Information Systems, and Phenol-Explorer. High-quality national and international FCDBs should be promoted and made more accessible to the research and public communities to promote better nutrition and public health on a global scale. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Food Composition and Dedicated Databases: Key Tools for Human Health and Public Nutrition (2nd Edition))
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Review

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20 pages, 860 KiB  
Review
Polyphenols in Cereals: State of the Art of Available Information and Its Potential Use in Epidemiological Studies
by Donatella Bianca Maria Ficco, Katia Petroni, Lorenza Mistura and Laura D’Addezio
Nutrients 2024, 16(13), 2155; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu16132155 - 6 Jul 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2198
Abstract
Cereals are the basis of much of the world’s daily diet. Recently, there has been considerable interest in the beneficial properties of wholegrains due to their content of phytochemicals, particularly polyphenols. Despite this, the existing data on polyphenolic composition of cereal-based foods reported [...] Read more.
Cereals are the basis of much of the world’s daily diet. Recently, there has been considerable interest in the beneficial properties of wholegrains due to their content of phytochemicals, particularly polyphenols. Despite this, the existing data on polyphenolic composition of cereal-based foods reported in the most comprehensive databases are still not updated. Many cereal-based foods and phenolic compounds are missing, including pigmented ones. Observational epidemiological studies reporting the intake of polyphenols from cereals are limited and inconsistent, although experimental studies suggest a protective role for dietary polyphenols against cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer. Estimating polyphenol intake is complex because of the large number of compounds present in foods and the many factors that affect their levels, such as plant variety, harvest season, food processing and cooking, making it difficult matching consumption data with data on food composition. Further, it should be taken into account that food composition tables and consumed foods are categorized in different ways. The present work provides an overview of the available data on polyphenols content reported in several existing databases, in terms of presence, missing and no data, and discusses the strengths and weaknesses of methods for assessing cereal polyphenol consumption. Furthermore, this review suggests a greater need for the inclusion of most up-to-date cereal food composition data and for the harmonization of standardized procedures in collecting cereal-based food data and adequate assessment tools for dietary intake. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Food Composition and Dedicated Databases: Key Tools for Human Health and Public Nutrition (2nd Edition))
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