Relaunch of nutrient database

A new version of a popular nutrient database used by consumers and researchers to find out what nutrients are in food has been launched.

Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing Catherine King said NUTTAB, an abbreviation of Nutrient Tables for Use in Australia, was one of the most popular resources on the Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) website, attracting about 2000 visitors a month.

“This is an important tool as it allows food researchers, dieticians, nutritionists, educators, consumers, people from industry and others to find out about nutrients in our food,” King said.

“For example, educators in nutrition use NUTTAB not only for research but as part of studies looking into food composition. The data in NUTTAB can also help people make decisions and recommendations to people about nutrient intakes.”

King said consumers also used NUTTAB as a way of understanding what they are eating and to help them refine their diets.

“It’s a really important reference source for people who want to see what nutrients they are taking in. It might be that they’ve been recommended to go on a low-sodium diet. This tool helps them do that by giving them important information about how much sodium is in food.”

NUTTAB is available free of charge on the FSANZ website in two formats, online as a searchable database and as electronic database files. The new version includes:

• new iodine, sodium, fat and fatty acid data
• new beef, lamb, mutton, veal and pork data
• new game meat data eg, buffalo, venison, emu, rabbit, ostrich
• separate files for Indigenous foods, vitamin D and amino acids
• trans fatty acid data, reported for the first time in NUTTAB