Development of an updated, comprehensive food composition database for Australian-grown horticultural commodities

TL;DR

This paper presents an updated, comprehensive food composition database for Australian-grown horticultural commodities, incorporating recent data to improve accuracy and relevance for stakeholders and serving as a model for similar updates globally.

Contribution

The study developed a current, nationally representative food composition database for Australian horticultural products, replacing outdated data and confirming nutrient concentrations with modern analytical methods.

Findings

Few differences between old and new data where analysis methods are comparable.

New data reflects current growing practices, varieties, climate, and analytical techniques.

The updated database will be freely accessible online to stakeholders.

Abstract

Australian agriculture supplies many horticultural commodities to domestic and international markets; however, food composition data for many commodities are outdated or unavailable. We produced an up-to-date, nationally representative dataset of up to 148 nutrients and related components in 92 Australian-grown fruit (fresh n=39, dried n=6), vegetables (n=43) and nuts (n=4) by replacing outdated data (pre-2000), confirming concentrations of important nutrients and retaining relevant existing data. Primary samples (n = 902) were purchased during peak growing season in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth between June 2021 and May 2022. While new data reflect current growing practices, varieties, climate and analytical methods, few notable differences were found between old and new data where methods of analysis are comparable. The new data will be incorporated into the Australian Food Composition Database, allowing free online access to stakeholders. The approach used could serve as a model for cost-effective updates of national food composition databases worldwide.