Indian Food Composition tables

Indian cuisine varies widely across the country according to the region, culture and tradition, characterized by the use of different spices, vegetables, grains, fruits and a variety of animal source foods.

Food composition tables (FCT) are data repository for the content of nutritionally relevant chemical constituents and energy values of foods. The Indian Food Composition Tables (IFCT) is an attempt to capture and provide nutritional information of Indian food. The first Indian FCT was brought out in the year 1937 by the National Institute of Nutrition (ICMR), Hyderabad. Since then NIN has been constantly updating the compositional database of Indian foods.

Uses of FCT

Compositional values of foods are useful in manifold ways as follows.

• in nutritional surveillance
• consumer nutrition appraisal
• nutrition labeling
• etiology of disease prevalence
• setting school menu standards-meal planning
• issue of dietary guidelines- recommendations
• to estimate intake of toxic and non-nutritive components
• to assess environmental impact of foods.

Indian Food Composition Tables, 2017

• The Indian Food Composition Tables, 2017 provides nutritional information on 151 discrete food components for 528 key foods.
• Analyzing all the foods that are consumed in the country is not feasible due to the prohibitive cost involved and thus it is essential to prioritize foods for compositional analysis. One method to set priorities is the ‘key foods approach’ which is defined as those foods that contribute upto 75% of the nutrients intake by the population. The method combines food consumption data with its nutrient composition, and ranking the foods by applying a scoring system to identify the key foods that contribute significantly to the diet in terms of their nutrients. Therefore, all foods analyzed were selected using the key foods principle for constructing the IFCT 2017.
• IFCT provides data of regular nutrients in foods complete in all respect and also on a whole range of bioactive substances. Vitamin D2 content in plant foods is presented for the first time in the world. The tables contain data on oligosaccharides, phytosterols, organic acids and individual polyphenols. It also embodies an exhaustive database on amino acid and fatty acid profiles of various foods.
• Except for eggs, all other food component data are for foods in the raw form.

To access the complete Indian Food Composition Tables, 2017, click here.

Source : National Institute of Nutrition