NU FS100 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Food Composition Data, Spectrophotometry, Calorie

• School: University of Alberta
• Department: Nutrition and Food Sciences
• Course: NU FS100
• Professor: Wendy Wismer

Document Summary

After reading this chapter, you should be able to: Identify common abbreviations and terms used in a food-composition table. List four factors that affect the nutrient content of foods. Food composition tables are used to evaluate the nutritional value of food supplies, develop food- distribution programs, plan and evaluate food-consumption surveys, provide nutritional counseling, and estimate the nutritional content of individual diets. The nutrient content of foods is influenced by: variety, season, geographical differences, stage of harvesting, handling, commercial processing, packaging, storage, display, home preparation, cooking and serving. The composition of foods is determined by a variety of scientifically sound, standardized methods. The first system of approximating the value of food separates a food into nutritive fractions through a series of chemical determinations. The different fractions include: water or dry matter, crude protein, ether extract or fat, crude fiber, nitrogen-free extract (sugars and starches, ash or total mineral.