**5. Conclusions**

To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate nutrient patterns in food items using South African food composition data. This analysis provides an overview of the inherent groups available within South African foods. The nutrient co-occurrence patterns identified using data-driven methods are consistent with current knowledge and comparable to similar studies from other countries. The results support current dietary guidelines and nutritional policies.

**Supplementary Materials:** The following are available online at https://www.mdpi.com/article/ 10.3390/nu13093194/s1, Figure S1: Screeplot for the principal component analysis of nutrients, Figure S2: Screeplot for the principal component analysis of food items.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, Y.B. and S.M.; methodology, Y.B. and S.M; formal analysis, Y.B.; writing—original draft preparation, Y.B.; writing—review and editing, all authors; visualization, Y.B.; supervision, S.M., H.M. and A.v.G.; project administration, Y.B. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** Y.B., S.M., and A.v.G. time on this research was funded by the South African Medical Research Council.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.

**Data Availability Statement:** No new data were created or analysed in this study. Data sharing is not applicable to this article.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
