Food Composition
The composition of a food can vary widely, depending, among other factors, on the variety of plants or animals, on growing and feeding conditions and, for some foods, on freshness. Food tablesare based on average values from many samples analysed in the laboratory and only provide a rough guide. Because of the errors mentioned above, there will likely be an error of ±10%
Nutritional Information
On most products, nutritional information is provided on the product packaging. The following is an example of the nutritional information provided on a packet of rice:
| Typical Value: | Per 100g |
| Energy (kJ/kcal) | 497 kJ 118 kcal |
| Protein | 2.4g |
| Carbohydrate | 20.5g |
| (of which sugars) | 0.9g |
| Fat | 2.9g |
| (of which saturates) | 0.4g |
| Fibre | 2.6g |
| Sodium | 0.4g |
| Potassium | 0.1g |
The packaging may also include the recommended Guideline Daily Amount (GDA) that we should consume:
| Gender | Fat | Sat Fat | Sugars | Salt | Cal |
| Women | 70g | 20g | 90g | 6g | 2000 |
| Men | 95g | 30g | 120g | 6g | 2500 |
So what does the information tell us?
The above product information tells us that every 100g of rice contains 2.4g of protein, 2.9g of fat, 20.5g of carbohydrate, and 118 calories which are 5.9% of GDA for women and 4.7% of GDA for men.
Page Reference
If you quote information from this page in your work, then the reference for this page is:
- MACKENZIE, B. (1999) Food Composition [WWW] Available from: https://www.brianmac.co.uk/food.htm [Accessed