International Life Sciences Institute

In April 2004, almost a year after launching Version 1.0, the ILSI International Life Sciences (ILSI) released Version 2.0 of the Crop Composition Database. The database is a compilation of data on the nutrients, anti-nutrients, and secondary metabolites for maize, soybean, and cottonseed samples obtained from controlled field trials in multiple worldwide locations covering the years 1995 and 1997-present. The analyses of the samples were conducted using validated analytical methods, many of them being AOAC Official Methods of Analysis. Version 2.0 of the database contains more than 70,000 data points that may be searched and accessed based upon user-selected queries. The database complements existing food and nutrient databases, such as the USDA Nutrient Database and FAO's INFOODS database, and has been of interest to research and regulatory scientists in many areas such as plant biology, food science, and animal nutrition. It has been also of interest to companies who provide other services to the food, feed, and agricultural biotechnology-related industries. Accurate information on the composition of crop commodities and their variability with production year and location is important for many food raw materials whose processing and essential properties such as flavor and texture depend on composition parameters.

The ILSI Crop Composition Database was structured to allow the user to select attributes of the data sets and data points, and then search the database for the information of interest. The search result shows individual measurements (each data point in the database is composed of a sample collected from a single plot at one location) and summary data that include the minimum, maximum, and average values, as well as the number of individual measurements that were used to derive the summary values. The output can be comprehensive, for example, and contain all the proximates for all years and all locations, or may be more refined and focus on a single amino acid in a particular geography in a single year. Data can be expressed in fresh weight or dry weight units. Method citations keyed by a method code plus a list of varieties/hybrids and vendors can also be provided separately.

The database on average receives more than 360 page views¹ per day, and more than 375 visits² per month. The visitors represent a wide range of research and regulatory scientists in the plant biology, food science, and animal nutrition fields, and on average spend more than 120 minutes using the site. In the first 11 months of operation, 55 companies, 9 national and international associations, 148 universities/academic organizations, and government agencies from Australia, Canada, Finland, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Switzerland, and the United States visited the database to obtain crop composition data.

The global awareness and value of the database were confirmed recently, when the European Food Standards Authority (EFSA) referenced it in its Guidance Document of the Scientific Panel on Genetically Modified Organisms for the Risk Assessment of Genetically Modified Plants and Derived Food and Feed (the EFSA Journal [2004] 99, 1-93).

Supporting the ILSI Crop Composition Database provides an excellent opportunity for testing laboratories that carry out compositional analyses and for analytical testing equipment manufacturers to increase awareness of their services by those who are particularly interested in composition data. This database should also be of interest to companies who provide other services to the food, feed and agricultural biotechnology-related industries.

Support of the database will be acknowledged with a link directly to the company website homepage from the homepage of the database and acknowledgement of support in presentations. A $500 contribution will be acknowledged by posting website linkage on the database opening page for three months, and a $2000 contribution by posting the linkage for one year.

Contributions to ILSI are 100% tax deductible as charitable donations.

For more information, please contact International Life Sciences Institute.

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