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In addition to the USDA SR Data and Brand Name foods, NutriBase (Clinical and higher editions) also contains nutrient information from the 2005 Canadian Nutrient Files. This data was prepared by the Research Division and Biostatistics and Computer Applications Division, Food Directorate, Health Protection Branch, Health Canada. Prepared by Research Division and Biostatistics and Computer Applications Division, Food Directorate, Health Protection Branch, Health Canada. The use of trade, firm or corporation names in this database is for information and convenience of the user. Such use does not constitute an official endorsement or approval by Health Canada of any product or service to the exclusion of others that may be suitable. NutriBase software was independently developed by CyberSoft, Inc. NutriBase software contains major portions of the 2001 Canadian Nutrient Files. CyberSoft also calculated eight additional fields of data. These new fields include % Calories from Protein, % Calories from Carbohydrates, % Calories from Fat, and % Calories from Alcohol. CyberSoft also calculated Calories from Protein, Calories from Carbohydrates, Calories from Fat, and Calories from Alcohol and added them into the database. These eight values were calculated using the compensated 4-4-9 method (see Appendix). All eight of these new fields are searchable within the software. Please direct all questions regarding NutriBase to CyberSoft, Inc. at 877-223-5459. Introduction to the Canadian Nutrient Files Highlights USDA Changes Incorporated:
Foods Food Names Nutrients
Canada's Food Guide for Healthy Eating Assignments Limitations to the Data Every food item may not contain a complete nutrient data set. Where data is unavailable for a particular nutrient on the database, it is a missing value and not a true zero. Software developers and others personalizing the database must learn to understand and account for the missing values. The CNF is particularly suited for assessment of diets, recipe development, menu planning when ingredients or menu items are not specific and for population nutrition surveillance activities, where nutrient intake distributions are used to conduct risk assessments such as modeling for fortification proposals. It is also useful in the initial stages of product development to ensure that nutritional targets can be met. While there are many target uses of the CNF, use of generic information from reference databases for calculating nutrient values for labeling purposes is generally not recommended since a close match to the product formulation or specific ingredients and processes can not be assured. Most users are looking for an average or mean value for the generic representation of the foods as described. These generic values have been derived from combining brands of similar products, for example all major brands of ketchup; various varieties of oranges or similar beef cuts from various producers. These data may also be developed by a commodity association utilizing sample units from different producers, and represent a hypothetical, generic product that is represented by a single value. Analytical values represent the total amount of the nutrient present in the edible portion of the food, including any nutrients added in processing. The values do not necessarily represent the nutrient amounts available to the body as often this relates to nutrient interactions, physiological mechanisms, nutritional status and other factors where not enough information is available. New For This Edition - CNF 2005 Still 427 foods have been added to the CNF largely through data released by the USDA in standard releases 14, 15, 16, 16-1 and 17. Not all foods included in the USDA database are suitable for the CNF either as they are not marketed here or are not allowed here due to unique Canadian regulations. While we found good success for years in working from USDA update files to track the new nutrients, changed nutrients, new conversion factors etc., informal comparisons revealed that the number of changes to the USDA files that were not tracked in this manner was increasing. Therefore we conducted a "mirroring exercise" to compare by computer application where the differences were true differences and where they were through lack of upkeep. As a result, clients will find many more changes to the nutrients than might be expected strictly from the USDA update files alone. Conversion Factors - Many conversion factors from a variety of sources were used to update the measure for which a weight of measure is provided within the database. Some of these are more user-friendly and embedded as part of the preparation for the web based program. Many clients may find them easier for their own programs as well as fewer calculations will be involved. Assignments in the Meat and Alternates Group - Of particular note for all users of these CFGHE assignments is the considerable difference of approach to recommended serving sizes utilized in the Meat and Alternates group. It is the philosophy of the creators of CFGHE that people tend to eat less meat or alternates at some meals (i.e., lunch meats in a sandwich, an egg in a salad) than others (i.e., fish fillet, meat steak) and that the education messages were better targeted when aimed at an overall consumption of between 100-300g of food per day than a single serving size for a meat or alternate portion. The closest acceptable fit in terms of making an assignment for each meat or alternate food in the database was to give a range of 50-100g for meat, poultry and fish, 1-2 eggs etc. However, we cannot electronically produce nutrient profiles on a range (calculation fields only accept one value), so web clients will see for beef steaks for example, that the indicator of a CFGHE measure description appears beside a measure which reads "50-100g", but there is no conversion factor or weight associated. However, the user can find the conversion factor for one end of that range, 100g. Similarly, foods that are very high in fat, and/or so low in nutrients that they don't fit into the rainbow, are called "Other foods". In the CFGHE system, these are not given portion sizes as it was felt that consumers would then consider these to be acceptable or reasonable sizes when in fact their consumption is to be limited entirely. For all other more information on the use, rationales and thresholds utilized to create these assignments please see the section entitled Relating Canada's Food Guide for Healthy Eating to CNF foods at www.healthcanada.ca/cnf. For a list of the groups and subgroups please see Table 1 in the Appendix. For a short time, the online indicators and/or the embedded subgroups within the downloadable CNF files will be the only access to this information. The updated excel file version will be available in the fall of 2005. Native Foods - Data published through a large study conducted by the Centre for Indigenous Peoples' Nutrition and Environment (CINE)5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12, the Alaska Traditional Knowledge and Native Foods Database13 have been incorporated into the database. They all carry the term Native in the food description and the foods themselves can be located within the group of like foods (i.e., Finfish and Shellfish products, Lamb, Veal and Game Products). Density or Specific Gravity - The CNF data has been changed to provide the density or specific gravity of the edible portion of homogeneous foods. Most of these densities are calculated from the weight of a 2.54 cm cubed (one inch cube). These densities are most commonly applied by those users employing food models. For foods with no refuse, the factor can be used directly; for foods with refuse, the percent refuse must be subtracted from the model volume before applying the factor. Portion Size Conversion Factors - The conversion factors are food-specific multipliers by which the nutrient values for each food may be multiplied to give the nutrients in described portions. They should not be considered as "average" or "typical" serving sizes. Multiplying by the factors provides the nutrients in the edible portions described in the CNF file (e.g., 1 fruit; 100 ml puree). Local markets must always be checked for available foods and the selection of values to be used in calculations must be based on such local information. The volume portions have been derived from the cup measures and suffer from the same strictures as described in USDA Handbook No. 456, Appendix B (2) as follows:
Conversion Factors for Volume Weights - In some cases conversion factors are provided for 5 and 15 ml volume weights and have been derived independently from teaspoon and tablespoon amounts (not by multiplying by 0.05 and 0.15) to conform with USDA Handbook No. 456, Appendix B (2) as follows: "For those foods commonly used in units of 1 tablespoon or 1 teaspoon, weights shown are for the foods measured in those units. Weights obtained in this manner are usually less than the weights derived for them by dividing the weight per cup by 16 (the number of tablespoons in 1 cup) or by 48 (the number of teaspoons in 1 cup)."
Edible Cooked Food - Occasionally it is more appropriate and useful to provide a weight of edible cooked food from 100 g of raw. In those cases the factors provided are derived from the weight of cooked portions yielded from 100 g raw. They cannot be applied to data for the comparable raw food to "cook by calculation" as there are other factors such as nutrient retention to consider in such calculations.
Conversion Factor for Edible Portion per 1 Kg - This is the number by which one would multiply the nutrient amount per 100 g to obtain the nutrient amount in the edible portion per 1 kg as described. Refuse, the inedible material (i.e., seeds, bone, and skin) contained in some foods can be calculated from this by using the following formula:
R = 100 - F4 x 1 kg For raw meats, the items as purchased are raw; for cooked meats, these conversion values are the amounts in the edible portion from 1 kg of cooked meat with refuse. For meat cuts containing bone, any connective tissue present is included in the value given for bone. Separable fat is not part of the refuse if the meat is described as lean and fat. Lean refers to muscle tissue that can be readily separated out of the intact cut and includes any fat striations within the muscle.
All measurements are metric. Metric System Equivalents employed in conversions are supplied in this section. All linear measurements are in centimeters. For certain nutrients there are no data at the present time.
Information On Canadian Nutrients Decimal Places. The five decimal digits seen throughout the CNF do not reflect the accuracy of the data but have been included for the purpose of minimizing round-off errors in subsequent calculations.
Proximate components include moisture (water), protein, total lipid (fat), carbohydrate and ash. Addition of these 5 components should approach 100. Carbohydrate is determined as the difference between 100 and the sum of the remaining proximate components (and alcohol when present). The determination of total carbohydrate values by this method of calculation includes total dietary fibre. Carbohydrate values are assumed zero in animal products (nutrient source code 12).
Protein values are calculated from the level of measured total nitrogen in the food, using the conversion factors recommended by Jones (1941). Protein values for soy products, chocolate, cocoa products, coffee, mushrooms and yeast are adjusted for non-nitrogenous material. The adjusted protein conversion factors used to calculate protein for these items are: soy products 5.71, chocolate and cocoa 4.74, coffee 5.3, mushrooms 4.38, and yeast 5.7.
Carbohydrate when present is determined as the difference between 100 and the sum of the remaining proximate components (and alcohol when present). The determination of total carbohydrate values by this method of calculation include total dietary fiber. Carbohydrate values are assumed zero in animal products.
Food Energy is expressed in both kilocalories (kcal) and kilojoules (kJ). One kcal equals 4.184kJ. Calorie values are based on the Atwater system for determining energy values; as the specific Atwater factors (specific to described food types) or used, for most foods the calorie value will differ from that calculated by the general 4/9/4 factors for protein/fat/carbohydrate. Details for the derivation of the Atwater calorie factors are outlined in Agriculture Handbook No. 7415.
Total Dietary Fiber (TDF) is made of complex and heterogeneous polymeric materials that are not easy to separate from other food components, particularly starch. Methods for dietary fibre have evolved remarkably over the past decade and at the moment there are 3 different AOAC approved methods for measuring TDF. TDF values originating from USDA data are analysed by AOAC14 methods 985.29 (Prosky) and 991.43 (Lee). Values originating from Canadian government laboratories (nutrient source code 3) were analysed using AOAC method 992.16 (Mongeau). TDF is assumed zero in many foods after review of literature and/or consultation with scientific experts (nutrient source code 12).
Vitamin A The primary unit of biologic activity for Vitamin A is called all-trans retinol. Carotenoids are a group of plant pigments that are provitamin or precursors to Vitamin A. The body cannot use these inactive forms until they are converted to the active, retinol. Total Vitamin A activity of a food then is expressed as a sum of its retinol and carotenoid content after conversion. Unfortunately, more than one method of expressing this total activity have been developed and not used universally. Also, the National Academy of Sciences16 has recently determined that the contribution from carotenoids is roughly half of that thought previously, resulting in the new unit, Retinol Activity Equivalents. Nutrition labels in the United States use International Units or IU.
1 IU = 0.3 mg retinol Vitamin A on the Canadian Nutrition Facts table is expressed in Retinol Equivalents, RE
1 RE = 1 mg retinol + mg ß-carotene/6 + mg other carotenoids/12
The new Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI) recommendations16 have now suggested Vitamin A should be expressed in terms of Retinol Activity Equivalents or RAE
1 RE = 1 mg retinol + mg ß-carotene/12 + mg other carotenoids/24
It is not simple or advisable to convert between RE's and IU's in a food containing both Retinol and carotenoids as one doesn't have information on the proportions of each. Calculating any of these activity standards is best done by starting with the amounts, in g, of each fraction contributing to activity.
The CNF 2005 version lists values of Vitamin A activity in terms of RAE, retinol in micrograms, and ß-carotene in micrograms.
Other Carotenoids Data compiled by USDA for 4 additional classes of carotenoids have been added to the CNF for this edition: These carotenoids have a much lower contribution to Vitamin A activity, but act as antioxidants that may have roles in reducing risks of cancer and other diseases.
Vitamin D Vitamin D is expressed in units of mg CNF staff initiated a project to expand the Vitamin D values on the database. Critical examination of the high percentage of formerly "missing values" was undertaken. Some were known by scientific deduction to be zero are now assigned assumed zero status, some values were borrowed from international databases, and some were estimated by recipe calculation to be below international standards for trace amounts.
Vitamin D in fish is determined by reverse phase HPLC-UV after sample saponification followed an extraction and an extensive clean-up involving a normal phase HPLC-UV separation.
Vitamin E There are a number of isomers of Vitamin E. In the past a calculation of Vitamin E equivalents, which took into account activities of various isomers was most commonly used. However, the National Academy of Sciences has now determined that the only isomer of significant activity is the RRR-"- tocopherol expressed in mg. As such the only expression of Vitamin E activity now in the CNF is "- tocopherol in mg.
Niacin is expressed both in terms of mg of preformed niacinamide present in the food as well as niacin equivalents (NE) which includes that which can be formed from tryptophan. There are 2 methods of calculating niacin equivalents:
o If preformed niacin, mg and tryptophan, g were present in the database then: (tryptophan x 1000/60) + niacin = NE
o If tryptophan was not present it was imputed to be 1.1% of total protein and: (0.011 x protein) x 1000/60 +niacin = NE
Folate, Folic Aid, Total Folacin The DFE is now the most commonly unit of expression when referring to recent population nutrition studies. There are a number of assumptions/limitations that need to be recognized before utilizing these data: These data assume that the additions of folic acid are as outlined in the regulations. In practice overages are common. Where a range is allowed we are basing calculations on the average. The addition is optional for cornmeal, pasta and rice but some realities in the marketplace allow us to make generalizations. There are very few manufacturers of cornmeal and they do not want to produce both fortified and unfortified batches. We are assuming that even the cornmeal used as an ingredient by manufacturers (i.e., in tacos shells) is fortified.
Most pasta is fortified in Canada. There are some imported brands that are not fortified and there is a separate listing for these in the database. However where it is an ingredient in manufacture of another food we are assuming fortified. In practice up to this point only precooked rice is commonly fortified. Values for cooked pasta were calculated based on the moisture difference between cooked and dry. There are no standard retention factors for folic acid upon cooking/processing. Only rather wide rages are published depending on many factors.
Fatty Acids Fatty acids are referred to by a variety of nomenclature systems, many of which date back prior to common knowledge of specific and geometric isomers. For unsaturated fatty acids, the trivial and systematic names reflect the most common isomer, although all isomers are included in the value. The most specific descriptor of the isomers is that indicated through the use of a shorthand system of numbers and letters. The first number in the nutrient description (before the colon) is the number of carbon atoms and the second (after the colon) is the number of double bonds in the chain. The letter c, t or i indicates whether or not the bond is cis or trans. For polyunsaturated fatty acids, cis and trans configurations at successive double bonds may be indicated. The i indicates that the fatty acid is not a single isomer but the peaks cannot be easily differentiated in the particular food item (i.e., 18:2 t depicts a fatty acid with 18 carbon atoms, 2 double bonds, and a trans configuration about at least one of those double bonds).
The values shown are for the actual quantity (g/100g) of each fatty acid and do not represent fatty acid triglycerides. These data were converted to grams of fatty acid per 100 g of total lipid (fat) using lipid conversion factors and then to gram of fatty acid per 100 grams edible portion of food using the total lipid content. Details of the derivation of lipid conversion factors have been published18.
Fatty Acid Totals As the individual fatty acids are determined by a different analytical method than that of total fat, the sum of fatty acids is rarely exactly equal to the total fat value. Moreover, total fat may include other fatty acids, phospholipids or sterols not analysed in that food. Values for total saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids may include individual fatty acids not listed in the CNF: therefore, the sum of their values may exceed the sum of the individual fatty acids listed. In rare cases, the sum of individual fatty acids may exceed the sum of the values given for the total saturated fatty acids (SFA), monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA), and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). These differences are generally caused by rounding and should be relatively small. Zero values for individual fatty acids should be understood to mean that trace amounts may be present. When g fatty acids per 100g were calculated to g fatty acids per 100g of food, values of less than 0.000g could be rounded to zero.
For formulated or brand name foods, industry data were often available for only the fatty acid classes (SFA, MUFA, PUFA) but were lacking for individual fatty acids.
Cholesterol - Cholesterol is present only in foods of animal origin. For foods of plant origin, the value for cholesterol is assumed to be zero.
Calculated values - Nutrient values have been recalculated for those nutrients where regulations in Canada require supplementation or fortification of certain foods as described in the Food and Drug Act and Regulations2. Such values are identified both by the food code and the nutrient source codes. In the same manner, certain foods (such as: CREAM, SOUR, cultured, 14%fat) that are not for sale in the U.S. have been calculated in their entirety to approximate Canadian foods and are similarly identified. Calculations are based on the values shown in USDA Nutrient Database for Standard Reference utilizing the conversion factors shown in Table 2 in the Appendix. Some inconsistencies may appear in the last decimal due to the conversion and rounding of numbers but are inconsequential in the overall accuracy of the data. Many amino acid and fatty acid profiles are calculated based on a difference in total protein or total fat from a similar food with an analyzed profile. For these foods no standard error or number of observations appear.
Metric System Equivalents for Units of Measure
References for CNF Nutrient Data
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