Food Databases

TambourineMan

Where do I find a list that converts the food database acronym in the rightmost column of the add food dialog to the full name so I can get info on that database itself and beyond just seeing the popularity rating but an analysis of its accuracy for nutrients such as potassium and phosphorous which manufacturers don't always show on the food label.

OldHobo

Maybe this will help 'til the knowledgeable folk answer.

TambourineMan

This is great. thank you much.

Hilary

@TambourineMan in general, I would suggest using the NCCDB and USDA data most often. Have a look at this blog post https://cronometer.com/blog/6-tips-getting-nutrition-data/ for some quick tips on how to choose the best data!

TambourineMan

THX. The blog was very helpful. I posted a comment there.

Adam8225

Hi, do you know if there is an Australian flu data base? Regards Adam

Hilary

Hi @Adam8225 there is indeed an Australian Food database. We do not include it in our database at this time, however you can access it on your own and easily add data from the database to your custom foods.

Adam8225

Hi @Hilary thanks, any tips on how to get to it? Pretty fundamental to have that Australian database part of the mobile app for us down under. MyFitnessPal has it and I moved from it because I wanted greater detail. Any chance on fast tracking it’s inclusion?
Regards
Adam

Hilary

Have a look here, @Adam8225:

http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/science/monitoringnutrients/nutrientables/nuttab/Pages/default.aspx

Unfortunately we are not including it at this time, but in the meantime feel free to add data from that list to your own custom food list. I personally have had a look through this Australian database, and there is quite a lot of overlap between it and NCCDB/USDA. I think you will find that with the exception of perhaps a couple of branded items, the majority will be found in NCCDB or USDA with either the same or better degree of detail.

It is in our plans to at some point incorporate the Australian database, however not at this time. We do input many user submitted foods from Aus/NZ each day, so there are a quite a lot of Branded foods in our database that are Aus/NZ specific!

We recently released a blog post about how to choose the best data for your needs here which I also linked to earlier in this forum thread (https://cronometer.com/blog/6-tips-getting-nutrition-data/ ) If your priority is to get the most detailed information for a food, I recommend choosing entries from the NCCDB in the Common Foods Tab.
If your priority is to log foods exactly as the nutrition facts appear on the package, I would recommend using the barcode scanner feature on the mobile app or entering the bar code number into the search bar on the Web version. If you cannot find the corresponding nutrition information, you can create a custom food and enter the nutrition information manually as seen on your foods packaging, and save the data in your custom foods to easily enter it again the next time you eat the food. When creating a custom food, you can submit it for publishing to our public database for use by you and other users later!

Adam8225

Hi Hilary
I now understand the dilemma. I will log the whole food where I can to get the best data. Thanks for the explanation and the links
Regards
Adam

Vickie

From Australia myself; I almost started a thread requesting to add AUSNUT to Cronometer, but when I saw that amino acids breakdown wasn't available I didn't go ahead with it. It doesn't include a lot of brand name items either, but has sugar vs added sugar, and to me useful things like our different cuts of beef. I understand Cronometer's decision to not include it at this time, though. I'm generally happy with NCCDB.

Adam8225

Thanks Vickie

Hilary

Hey @Vickie (& @Adam8225 ),
I wonder if you can shed some light on a question we have been wondering about here at our Canadian office. We have noticed that many branded Australian items don't include fibre on the Nutrition Labels, and we were wondering if you might know the reason for this.
Thanks @Vickie for all your great posts in this forum as well. We really appreciate your engagement in the community!

Vickie

@Hilary Dietary fibre is included in our nutrition labels, but it's its own entry, not included in carbs, i.e. carbohydrates on Australian food labels = net carbs. Could this be the reason it's "missing" when you tried to extract it from Carbohydrates?

Hilary

Oops, sorry @Vickie, I think I didn't explain that very well! Cronometer does account for fibre on Australian Labels when it is listed and we separate it out as seen on Australian labels as well. I was wondering why it often isn't listed at all on Australian packaging. We go through a lot of Australian user submissions here and often find that it is not listed. It seems that in North America people track fibre fairly closely; Just curious if Fibre is something that is often not really looked at by the general public tracking their nutrition in Australia. (Wanted to get an insider's opinion on why this might be the case )

Vickie

@Hilary I just had a quick scroll through at my collection of nutrition label photos (I'm the weirdo who takes photos of food labels at the shops :P ) and you're right! Food that has no or negligible fibre count doesn't have the Dietary Fibre 0g line. I guess by law they're not required to report on 0 fibre content! You learn something new every day!