FooDB (The Food Database) is a freely available, open-access database containing chemical (
micronutrient
Micronutrients are essential chemicals required by organisms in small quantities to perform various biogeochemical processes and regulate physiological functions of cells and organs. By enabling these processes, micronutrients support the heal ...
and macronutrient) composition data on common, unprocessed foods.
It also contains extensive data on
flavour and aroma constituents,
food additives
Food additives are substances added to food to preserve flavor or enhance taste, appearance, or other sensory qualities. Some additives, such as vinegar ( pickling), salt ( salting), smoke (smoking) and sugar (crystallization), have been used for ...
as well as positive and negative health effects associated with food constituents. The database contains information on more than 28,000 chemicals found in more than 1000 raw or unprocessed food products. The data in FooDB was collected from many sources including textbooks, scientific journals, on-line food composition or nutrient databases,
flavour and aroma databases and various on-line metabolomic databases.
This literature-derived information has been combined with experimentally derived data measured on thousands of compounds from more than 40 very common food products through the Alberta Food Metabolome Project which is led by
David S. Wishart. Users are able to browse through the FooDB data by food source, name, descriptors or function. Chemical structures and molecular weights for compounds in FooDB may be searched via a specialized chemical structure search utility. Users are able to view the content of FooDB using two different “Viewing” options: FoodView, which lists foods by their chemical compounds, or ChemView, which lists chemicals by their food sources. Knowledge about the precise chemical composition of foods can be used to guide public health policies, assist food companies with improved food labelling, help dieticians prepare better dietary plans, support nutraceutical companies with their submissions of health claims and guide
consumer choice
The theory of consumer choice is the branch of microeconomics that relates preferences to consumption expenditures and to consumer demand curves. It analyzes how consumers maximize the desirability of their consumption (as measured by their pr ...
s with regard to food purchases.
See also
*
Human Metabolome Database
The Human Metabolome Database (HMDB) is a comprehensive, high-quality, freely accessible, online database of small molecule metabolites found in the human body. It has been created by the Human Metabolome Project funded by Genome Canada and is ...
*
DrugBank
The DrugBank database is a comprehensive, freely accessible, online database containing information on drugs and drug targets created and maintained by the University of Alberta and The Metabolomics Innovation Centre located in Alberta, Canada. A ...
*
Food
Food is any substance consumed by an organism for Nutrient, nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or Fungus, fungal origin and contains essential nutrients such as carbohydrates, fats, protein (nutrient), proteins, vitamins, ...
*
Food composition data
Food composition data (FCD) are detailed sets of information on the nutritionally important components of foods and provide values for energy and nutrients including protein, carbohydrates, fat, vitamins and minerals and for other important food c ...
*
Food composition databases
References
{{reflist
External links
Foodb website
Food databases