The German Nutrient Database: Effect of different versions on the calculated energy and nutrient intake of the German population

The effects of altered data on the nutrient content of food items in a food composition database can be described by calculating and comparing the energy and nutrient intake of a population group with different database versions. To examine the effect of the differences between the German Nutrient Database (BLS) versions II.3, II.4, and 3.02 (generated in 1999, 2006, and 2014), the energy and nutrient intake of a representative sample of the German population (German National Nutrition Survey II (NVS II)) were compared. This comparison reveals that the median intake for most of the studied nutrients differed significantly between the three BLS versions for both sexes, in approximately one fourth of the comparisons more than 10%. The differences are largest for calcium (men: −21.5%; women: −22.5%), magnesium (men: −19.3%; women: −22.1%), and iodine (women: −20.2%) in the comparison of BLS version 3.02 and II.3. In particular changes of nutrient data of food items with high consumption, like milk, tea, and water, have strong effects on the calculated nutrient intake. Since the present study reveals a strong impact of the applied versions of a food composition database on the nutrient intake of food consumption studies, the knowledge of the version differences is of significant importance.