30th National Nutrient Databank Conference: 19-20 September 2006, Honolulu Hawaii.

Aloha wahini and kane dietitians!

Held in beautiful Hawaii in conjunction with the American Dietetics Association Conference, the Nutrient Databank Conference 2006 targeted dietitians, nutritionists and researchers working in the area of food composition. With a theme of 'The Role of Food Composition in Improving Dietetic Practice', the introductory sessions were held the day before the American Dietetics Association Conference allowing interested dietitians to join and learn about the importance and challenges of nutrient composition. Leading researchers in the field presented their work including Joanne Holden (USDA, MD), Phyllis Stumbo (University of Iowa, IA), Jean Pennington (National Institute of Health, MD), Barbara Burlingame (FAO, Rome), Bill Aalbersberg (University of Fiji, Fiji) and Suzanne Murphy (Cancer Research Centre, HI). Each presenter was greeted with a pink scented floral lei before their presentation. Despite it being a national conference (previously held in San Diego in 2005 and Iowa in 2004), attendees came from across Europe, Africa, Asia and of course Australia (there were three of us). Introductory topics covered new advances in food composition database development, how to develop a database for dietary supplements, analytical methods and choosing the right type of dietary assessment.

The nutrient databases freely available on the Internet were detailed showing the number of nutrients, food items and completeness of the databases. For example, the Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies developed by USDA (http://www.ars.usda.gov/Services/docs.htm?docid=7673) had more than 62 food components and 7000 foods in their 'as consumed' form. This is quite likely to have changed substantially over time. The conference heard that database problems are commonly encountered particularly the use of different naming systems both within the same country and internationally. For example, soda water can be referred to as carbonated water, club water, seltzer water, misnomes and many more.

Day two became more focused and we moved location to the amazing Hawaii Hilton Village. Complete with penguins, turtles and flamingoes, this resort sat right on the main beach of Waikiki, a very tempting lunchtime location. Responding to a challenge in the morning by a fellow presenter that '... Australians aren't too bright ...', I presented my work addressing ordinal regression of patient variables and nutrient intake data from a modified version of the Australian Nutrient Database, and am pleased to report it was very well received! The day was filled with the practical applications of food composition databases, development of databases for special population groups and for remote locations. We learnt the development of a traditional Hawaiian food composition database is presently underway. Consuming different foods to mainland USA, Hawaii presently only has the USDA database to use and comparisons of food items demonstrated the problem. For example, the USDA database contains mashed potato, as the closest food item to the traditional Poi (taro root) eaten in Hawaii. The composition data reveal mashed potato composed of potato, milk, butter and salt to be 18-20% solid and contain 2% protein and 4% fat, while poi composed of taro and water is 14-16% solid and composed of <1% protein and <1% fat.

The issues surrounding food composition databases were further emphasised when presentations related to the sampling and analysis of foods. Numerous questions need to be considered. When is the food available? Where is the food available? What is the best point of sampling? What are the handling requirements? What is the harvest date? What time of the season was the food harvested? For example, we learnt that when following a potato through its season, vitamin B6 peaks at the end of the season, while vitamin C peaks mid season, all affecting the nutrient composition of the sample. The diversity of presenters and topic areas of this conference was very informative and showed how countries throughout the world are all trying to work towards a similar goal.

All presentations are available at: http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/conf/ and the next National Nutrient Databank Conference will be held in Washington on 27 April 2007 as a satellite of the Experimental Biology Meeting. I hope to see you there. Mahalo!

Yasmine Probst, PhD, APD 

Research Associate, Smart Foods Centre University of Wollongong Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia