Speakers: Stefan. M. Furrer and Michael Peters, Givaudan Flavors Corp., Cincinnati, OH; and Cristian Bologa, Oleg Ursu, and Tudor Oprea, Translational Informatics, Department of Internal Medicine, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM.
Abstract: The nutritional composition of foods is the cornerstone of preparing healthy diets; these nutrients also represent building blocks of taste and aroma. Chemical entities characterized in nutrient composition data, such as amino acids, sugars and lipids, play key roles in taste perception and aroma formation pathways.
We recently conducted a systematic study of nutritional food composition. Data from multiple information resources was collected, aggregated and similarity assessments of foods nutrient profiles were used to identify underlying connections. The resulting visual mapping highlights patterns in the global food nutrient landscape, representing ingredient sources, processing and cooking steps, as well as regional specifics. We will report our preliminary foray into this type of food informatics analysis based on food nutritional composition mapping as well as the challenges of integrating diverse information sources.