Carbohydrates and Related Food Components: INFOODS Tagnames, Meanings, and Uses

INFOODS international food component identifiers, also known as tagnames, are used in retrospectively evaluating and updating existing food composition systems and in the prospective design and implementation of new systems. In this paper the relationships between 88 food components that are predominantly carbohydrate in nature, their preparations, and methods of analysis and presentation are examined. Some examples of the ambiguity and/or opportunity for misinterpretation of carbohydrate and dietary fiber data are quantified, and guidelines for selecting and using INFOODS tagnames are discussed.