Food composition data: Identifying new uses, approaching new users

Food composition data (FCD) are fundamental for nutrition science and also extensively used in the public health domain. Advances in information technologies allowing rapid transmission of large data volumes likely will foster the development of new FCD uses and in the future FCD could be retrieved any time and location-independent (e.g. in supermarket and restaurants) through the use of mobile or stationary devices having incorporated Internet access.

To achieve this, FCD need to be standardised and available on the Internet, two requirements towards which the Network of Excellence EuroFIR has already substantially contributed. The technology needed for the implementation of FCD into innovative interfaces, either mobile or stationary, is already available and allows for sufficiently rapid data transfer.

Improved data coverage and quality as well as standardised availability and accessibility, allowing easier data interchange, will further facilitate new FCD uses providing a maximum of user-relevant data and meeting users’ requirements. Next to classical uses, FCD could also easily be incorporated to a greater extent in educational or entertainment tools, which would respond to the call of the World Health Organization and European Commission for the dissemination and development of new activities in the fields of nutrition, physical activities and health.