The International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) released Version 3.0 of its crop composition database, which provides up-to-date information on the natural variability in composition of conventional crops and provides a reference for comparing the composition of new crop varieties, including those developed through biotechnology.

Crop, food, and feed composition studies are considered an essential part of the safety assessment of new crop varieties, including those developed through biotechnology.  Information obtained from such studies is used to assess similarities and differences in important nutrients and anti-nutrients. This database was generated from crop composition data obtained from studies conducted by members of the agricultural biotechnology industry over a number of years at multiple worldwide locations.  Information collected in the database includes data on numerous biochemical parameters, such as proximates, amino acids, lipids, carbohydrates, key vitamins, and anti-nutrients. 

Version 3.0 of the database is an extension of previous versions and contains approximately 118,000 data points that may be searched and accessed based upon user-selected queries.  The analyses of the samples were conducted using validated analytical methods, many of them being AOAC Official Methods of Analysis.  The database complements existing food and nutrient databases, such as the USDA Nutrient Database and FAO’s INFOODS database, and should be of interest to research and regulatory scientists in many areas such as plant biology, food science, and animal nutrition.  It should also be of interest to companies who provide other services to the food, feed, and agricultural biotechnology-related industries. 

The development and application of the database has been described in a June 2004 article in the Journal of Food Composition and Analysis.  The database was referenced by the European Food Standards Authority (EFSA) 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).

ILSI welcomes and highly encourages submission of other publicly available composition data that meet the acceptability criteria outlined on the website.

The database is available for public use (free of charge) via the Internet at www.cropcomposition.org.

International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI), located in Washington, DC, is a nonprofit, worldwide foundation established in 1978 to advance the understanding of scientific issues relating to nutrition, food safety, toxicology, risk assessment, and the environment by bringing together scientists from academia, government, industry, and the public sector to solve problems with broad implications for the well-being of the general public. ILSI receives financial support from industry, government, and foundations.