*4.2. CIQUAL—French Food Composition Table*

CIQUAL is an open access French FDB [16], covering a wide range of the most consumed foodstuffs in France. This reference database on the nutritional composition of foods is maintained by the Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (known by the acronym ANSES). This FDB was updated in 2020 and provides the levels of macro (lipids, fatty acids, carbohydrates) and micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, etc.) of more than 3185 foods and 67 components. The main axes targeted by CIQUAL are the input and management of a reference database relating to the composition of foods, the contribution to the assessment of nutritional risks, and the communication and dissemination of validated data to the greatest number of users (encompassing researchers, nutritionists, food manufacturers, and consumers). In the context of the present work, this database is herein described in more detail, to illustrate the general structure of whole food FDBs, sharing main features and functionalities, essential for interconnections between databases, as explained above.

According to ANSES, finding nutritional information can be carried out by looking for the food in question or by food category. Food categories are classified into eleven food groups:


The nutritional information of each food product is given by a table either in detailed composition or in basic composition. In the case of detailed composition, the estimated energy provided from fibres is also included (based in Jones' factor). All the nutrients likely to be present in the food are provided by the table and are expressed in g/100 g or g/100 mL of the edible part. Lipids are detailed by the fatty acid profile (saturated and polyunsaturated). Fibres, water, starch, vitamins, and oligo-elements are all exposed, but not for all foods systematically, and the level of detail may vary. The data source of each compound is also mentioned by CIQUAL, and it may come from different sources, given the interlinkage between FDBs. Thus, data are a compilation between a sampling plan and analyses launched each year by ANSES on 60 to 80 foods in collaboration with subcontracted laboratories, plus data from OQALI (a French project, which aims at monitoring changes in processed foods supply available on the French market), research programs carried out jointly with external partners, information from scientific literature and laboratory, and finally, data from foreign food composition tables [16].
