Identifying food components: INFOODS tagnames and other component identification systems

Food components need to be identified correctly and unambiguously. This is essential in the documentation and interchange of compositional data and it avoids confusion and misinterpretation for the users of these data. For this purpose, INFOODS published the first set of component identifiers, also called tagnames, in 1989. Since then, reported food components have vastly increased in number due to advances in analytical methods and increased interest in bioactive non-nutrient components. Users of food composition data are increasingly interested in more detailed data on fatty acids (e.g. positional and geometric isomers), individual vitamers and the speciation of nutrient elements. Several hundred tagnames have been added to the INFOODS database in the past 15 years. In order to keep up with the plethora of food components being analyzed and compiled in food composition databases, as well demands from new sectors and user, INFOODS held a technical consultation in 2003 to review and update principles and practices. Recommendations included separating units and base quantities from the definition of a tagname, maintaining the principle of different tagnames for highly empirical methods, and maintaining the keyword approach through which the components can be further defined. The comparison between INFOODS tagnames and other component identification systems such as EUROFOODS shows that the majority of component identifiers are the same. Further discussions and trials are needed to continue the evolution of the harmonized system of component identification through the lenses of both nutrition science and information technology.