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The nutritional value of food: A retailer's view on McC ance and W iddowson's T he C omposition of F oods D ata
Author(s) -
Howie M.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
nutrition bulletin
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.933
H-Index - 40
eISSN - 1467-3010
pISSN - 1471-9827
DOI - 10.1111/nbu.12140
Subject(s) - legislation , ingredient , business , food science , recipe , nutrition information , product (mathematics) , pace , marketing , food industry , nutrition facts label , nutritional information , geography , chemistry , mathematics , political science , law , geometry , geodesy
Clear, concise, up‐to‐date food composition data are essential to the food retail sector. Legislation requires nutrition information on food labels to be accurate and provided in a format that consumers can read and understand. A product's nutrition panel enables consumers to make informed decisions at point of sale or purchase and choose products best suited to their dietary needs. This is particularly important in light of current public health concerns regarding energy (kcal), fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt intakes within the UK diet and also for increasing intake of nutrients conducive to health. In this regard, the Seventh Summary Edition of McC ance and W iddowson's T he C omposition of F oods is an invaluable set of reference tables for the food industry. Its data, particularly on vitamins and minerals, allow consistent labels to be produced even when small seasonal variations occur. In such circumstances, changing the information on the label would be unnecessary and incur cost. Nutritional data are particularly useful for single‐ingredient foods such as eggs, cheese, bread and fruit, but the tables do lack some accuracy for composite recipe dishes because of the pace of reformulation. Overall, the validated data provided by McC ance and W iddowson's T he C omposition of F oods are critical to the integrity of nutritional information provided on food labels and facilitates food retailer compliance with legislation, though there is a need for better management of new/revised ‘real‐time’ data.