[LATINFOODS].

Abstract

Food Composition Tables should be considered as national wealth and as valuable tools for utilization in food and nutrition, in nutritional therapy, in agricultural planning and production, in food guides, and in the food industry for the formulation of information on the product that appears in the label. They should, therefore, be considered as national wealth because they chemically describe the food resources of a country at a very high price, and are considered valuable tools due to their multiple applications. The countries present Tables were published between 1935 and 1961, with analytical data available at that time. So far the Tables have met their purpose, but due to changes that have occurred in raw materials, in analytical methodology, in the new knowledge acquired in nutrition, and in the relationships between food and diseases, in November 1986, representative groups of the Latin American and the Caribbean countries decided to create LATINFOODS. The objective of the program is to promote the development of data banks of foods of the Latin American countries, creating national multidisciplinary groups interested in data production, compilement, publication and utilization, and that eventually, may be homogeneously united to form a data bank for Latin America and the Caribbean Region. During the meeting in favor of the creation of LATINFOODS, detection was made of the constraints of the Food Composition Tables now used as well as the measures needed to correct such problems. These included the number of samples collected as well as the analytical methods used, and the number of nutrients. Due to the observed increase in production and distribution of new food products by the food industry, and to the increased association between foods and diseases, the food industry must participate not only in the generation of data, but in their utilization for food identification, nutrient contribution and nutritional education. Likewise, academic programs in Food Technology should extend the concepts of Food Science with special emphasis on food nutrient contents, to reach an adequate nutritional and health status for the Latin American population.