ABSTRACT
Use of computers in nutrition and dietetics has increased during the past couple of decades, sev eral Nutrient Data Bank Directory and nutrient analysis systems having been listed in the United States and Sweden (1,2). The first Annual National Nutrient Data Bank Conference was held in the United States of America in 1976. A Nordic project group (NORFOODS) was created in 1982 for the coordination of food composition tables and of nutrient data banks, immediately followed by an international (INFOODS) and European (EUROFOODS) colllaboration groups. The activ ities of INFOODS (International Network of Food Data Systems) began with a planning confer ence (Food and Nutr. Bull., Vol. 2, 1983), aiming to improve the amount, quantity, and availabil ity of food composition data (3). INFOODS, therefore, has set up a secretariat and established international working committees on different topics of common interest, e.g. users’ needs infor mation systems, and data quality and terminology. In addition, several regional committees work ing independently and together with INFOODS have been established, as are NORFOODS and EUROFOODS (2,4). Both INFOODS and the regional committees are composing food tables and nutrient database systems for user needs (5).
