The importance of food composition data in recipe analysis

The estimation of the nutrient content of a food from its ingredients, or recipe analysis, can be a cost-effective alternative to chemical analysis for a range of applications. For example, recipe analysis is used in menu planning for institutions and special diets, dietary assessment and food composition databases. More recently, it has become important for assessing whether school meals are meeting guidelines, for calculating 'calories on the menu' in food service outlets, for nutritional labelling, and in magazines, cookery books and recipe websites. Robust food composition data, such as the recently published Seventh Summary Edition of McCance and Widdowson's The Composition of Foods, are essential for recipe analysis, providing the 'established and accepted' source of information required for nutritional labelling. In addition, the new summary edition contains information on weight change, edible conversion factors and vitamin retention values which are invaluable when undertaking recipe calculations. There are, however, many challenges in recipe analysis, including sourcing appropriate nutrient values, converting ingredient quantities from units and household measures to weights, and assigning weight change factors. The new edition is a welcome and invaluable resource for recipe analysis, but the nutrient values and associated data (e.g. weight change and portion sizes) need to be reviewed, updated and expanded on an ongoing basis in order to reflect the changing food supply.