Online-Publication of the German Food Composition Table “Souci–Fachmann–Kraut“ on the Internet

The German Food Composition Table, founded in the 1960s by S. W. Souci, W. Fachmann and H. Kraut has been published since 1968 as a regular printed version via a scientific publisher. Analogous to the development of this media, an electronic version of the database, corresponding to the fifth edition of the table, was available for the first time in 1995. However, contemporaneously with the publishing of the sixth edition an online-version of the database has been developed and transferred into the World Wide Web, providing detailed food composition data of about 800 food items and 260 food constituents (http://www.sfk-online.net). The documentation includes the average values and variations of the nutrient concentrations, as well as energy- and waste values of the specific food items. The concept of the database enables the user to search for specific food items, defined constituent concentrations and energy values, as well as to export data tables of single food items. Additionally the calculation of the composition of raw food mixtures based on the data included in the database is realized by this electronic version.