Traditional foods: a science and society perspective

Traditional foods reflect cultural inheritance and have left their imprints on contemporary dietary patterns. They are key elements for the dietary patterns in different countries and consequently are important to accurately estimate population dietary intakes. However, this information is missing from most current national food composition databases. EuroFIR aims to enrich national food composition tables that lack nutrient data on traditional foods and to provide data on selected bioactive components. In this context, a common definition of traditional foods has been agreed upon for the classification of traditional foods in European food composition tables. A list of traditional foods, for which analytical nutritional and bioactive data will be provided, has been developed.