Versions and Updates
Version V6.5 of the Swiss food composition database contains the following new features:
– Vitamin E now indicates solely the alpha-tocopherol content. It no longer takes into account the vitamin activity of other tocopherols or tocotrienols. This modification is because the new Swiss reference nutritional values refer to recommendations for vitamin E in the form of alpha-tocopherol, bearing in mind that it is the sole form of physiologically active vitamin E.
– New analytical results for vitamins and mineral salts in tofu. The analyses of mineral salts come from the laboratory of the Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office FSVO, and the analyses of vitamins were sub-contracted to an independent laboratory.
– New analytical results for mineral salts in fish in Swiss lakes, and in vegetables and potatoes, come from the FSVO laboratory.
– New foods in the categories and sub-categories “meat substitutes” and “milk substitutes”
– Updated values for some vegetables and for mineral waters.
The version was corrected on 17.03.2023 (Correction: nutrient “Zinc”, food 13420 “Beer, non-alcoholic”)
Version 6.4 of the Swiss Food Composition Database includes the following new features:
- New data for the vitamin content of fruit, dried fruit, vegetables, eggs and tofu, analysed in 2020 by the Swiss Vitamin Institute SVI.
- New data on the selenium content of eggs, analysed by the laboratory of the Federal Office for Food Safety and Veterinary Affairs FVO.
- Updated data on the nutritional composition of fruit.
- New foods in the categories fresh fruit, cooked fruit (including canned), bread and bakery products and breakfast cereals.
- Removal of obsolete foods and branded foods that have a generic equivalent.
Version V 6.3 of the Swiss Food Composition Database includes the following new features – Thirty or so new generic foods. – New data relating to vitamins in fruits, vegetables, tofu, oils and nuts analysed in 2019 by the Swiss Vitamin Institute SVI and other data supplied by the laboratory of the Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office FSVO relating to mineral salts in eggs.
Version V 6.2 of the Swiss Food Composition Database is aimed uniquely at the publication of the Table of the Swiss nutritional composition 2020. It is not published on the website www.valeursnutritives.ch. It includes the following new features: – 55 new generic foods – new data on vitamins analysed by the Swiss Vitamin Institute SVI in 2019 – New retention factors for nutrients have been utilised to calculate recipes.
Correction of a calculation error in the water content of various foods.
Version 6.0 of the Swiss Food Composition database differs from the previous version in the following respects:
- Publication on a newly designed website with additional functionalities.
- Protein contents have been recalculated following the legally stipulated factor of 6.25.
- “Vitamin A Activity, RE” and “Vitamin A Activity, RAE”, calculated on the basis of various conversion factors of beta carotene to vitamin A. In the past only RE Activity was reported.
- The salt content is now reported in addition to the sodium content and is calculated from the sodium content.
- For dairy, cereal and meat products, fruit and vegetables the vitamin data, as analysed by the Swiss Vitamin Institute (SVI), have now been listed in the database.
- Data from the Selenium Monitoring 2014 have now been listed.
- V6.0 now contains almost only generic foodstuffs. Branded products, with a few exceptions (alcoholic drinks), have now been removed. They have been replaced by the inclusion of various new generic foodstuffs.
- Various errors have been corrected (e.g. missing or incorrect translations of product descriptions, incorrect categorisation of individual foodstuffs).
The database currently contains information on 1096 foodstuffs.
Version 5.3 differs from the previous version in the following respects:
- Inclusion of vitamin data from the Swiss Vitamin Institute for cereals, legumes and vegetables.
- Inclusion of mineral and trace element data from the FSVO laboratory for vegetables.
- Recording of other frequently consumed, mainly processed foods, based on the responses received in the Swiss nutrition survey menuCH.
- Inclusion of new generic food commodities.
- Correction of various errors (e.g. wrong or missing translations of food names, classification of certain foods in the wrong category).
The database thus contains information on 10’617 foods, 999 of which being generic entries.
Version 5.2 differs from the previous version in the following respects:
- Optimised display of search results. Generic foods will be shown separately at the top of the list of results.
- Compilation of mineral analyses of nuts, pulses and rice performed by the laboratory of the Swiss Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office.
- Compilation of additional frequently consumed foods based the Swiss nutrition survey menuCH.
- Correction of various errors (e.g. wrong or missing translations of food names, classification of certain foods in the wrong category).
The database thus contains information on 10,578 foods, 961 of which are generic entries.
Version 5.1 differs from the previous version in the following respects:
- Use of additional categories and adaptation of existing categories.
- Possibility to retrieve database through an API (application programming interface).
- Expansion of the database with nutritional information on products of the following companies: Andros, Biotta, Burger King, Coop, Emmi, McDonalds, Rivella, Roland, Sponser, Zweifel and Zwicky.
- Update of nutritional information on products of the following companies: bio-familia, Dr. Schär, Nestlé and Oswald.
- Updating of several nutritional values (e.g. of wheat flours, meats, baking yeast, tuna in oil and water, shrimp, jelly babies).
- Correction of various errors (e.g. iodine content of iodised table salt, niacin content of wheat flour type 720, calculation of nutrients for cooked rice, cereals and legumes).
- Display of nutrients in all oils per 100ml.
The database thus contains information on 10,527 foods.
Website modifications due to the change of publisher. The database was transferred from the Federal Office of Public Health FOPH to the Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office FSVO.
Version 5.0 differs from the previous version in the following respects:
- Expansion of the database with nutritional information on over 5700 products of the following companies: Coop, Dr. Schär, Migros, Nestlé, Oswald, Unilever, Wander.
- Updating of nutritional values of Kellogg’s Special K products.
- Examination and correction of various recipes and calculations, focusing on bread and bakery products.
- Calculation of frequently consumed dishes and foods with corresponding expansion of the database.
- Recording of iodine analyses from the FOPH iodine monitoring programme.
- Correction of various errors (e.g. classification of certain foods in the wrong category).
The database thus contains information on 7076 foods.
Revision of various entries.
Version 4.00 differs from the preceding version as follows:
- Calculation of the energy content of all entries using the legally prescribed coefficients for the declaration of foodstuffs (incl. dietary fibre).
- Calculation of the nutrient content of cooked foodstuffs and the corresponding enlargement of the database.
- Calculation of generic foodstuffs and the corresponding enlargement of the database.
- Supplementing/reviewing of diverse iodine contents.
- Reviewing and correcting existing recipes/calculated entries.
- Updating of meat and sausage dishes as well as all mineral water entries.
- Correction of diverse single values.
- New entries for spelt flour, sunflower oil, rapeseed oil, quorn fungal protein and various types of beer.
The database thus contains information on 1070 foodstuffs.
Honey (blossom honey), ID 1000957: iodine new 0.5 µg per 100 g edible fraction (previously 500 µg/100 g)
In version 3.00, 169 foodstuffs were updated or newly incorporated. With the simultaneous removal of 35 foodstuffs that were mostly no longer available, the database was extended to a total of 935 foodstuffs.
In addition, the vitamin A values were updated for more than 560 foodstuffs. No attempt was made to update the calculated foodstuffs (based on recipes), as in future this is intended to be carried out using the recipe calculation.
In the last two years most of the work was devoted to
- technical updating of the database as well as its adaptation to the new EuroFIR standards.
- establishing contacts with the most important data suppliers in Switzerland.
Moreover, 175 foodstuffs were either newly added or updated for the new version 2.1. The database presently contains information on 825 foodstuffs.
Some of the foodstuffs that were temporarily removed from version 2.0 were relisted in the database after being updated or amended. Version 2.01 contains information on 730 foodstuffs.
Version 2.0 of the Swiss Food Composition Database is an error-corrected update of version 1.0. In addition to the corrections of the errors in the nutrient value data which have been discovered since version 1.0 was published, the version 2.0 now contains exclusively datasets that contain complete information on the macro-nutrients (carbohydrates, proteins, fats) and on water and alcohol. Version 2.0 contains around 670 foodstuffs.
Version 1.0 of the Swiss Food Composition Database was completed in 2002. It is the result of a joint project between the FOPH and the ETH Zurich. Version 1.0 contained 900 foodstuffs and 32 nutrients and in addition to the support provided by the FOPH and the ETH Zurich was co-financed with a generous sum by the food industry.