Welcome to the FoodBasket

How to use FoodBasket

The FoodBasket web application enables users to create recipes, to print and save them on the local computer and to calculate nutritive values for the recipe.

What is the source of available food items?

The source of available items comes from European Food Information Resource Network (EuroFIR) which was a five-year ‘Network of Excellence’, funded by the European Commission, through the EU Sixth Framework Programme, that produced a harmonized, standardized and most uniquely presented food composition database in Europe. The database contains more than 54000 food items form various countries (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, USA).

How do I set up my working environment ?

When you start the program, the upper part of the screen shows user identification data and displays the current working-environment settings for the user. By clicking the Edit button, next screen shows up, where editing of user’s working environment settings can be made. Beside the user name, user can modify local language for the program, selection of the unit system (American or metric) and also a list of active countries (from what country’s datasets should the food items be used by the program).

By clicking on Edit option the environment setting screen will open

eurofir_foodbasket

Environment configuration (Edit)

Environment setting screen. – ‘Country field’ shows the list of active countries (datasets). When making recipes, only the food items that come from defined countries will be shown on the screen. By clicking this field you can define active countries – the ones from which the program is going to show food items.

dataset_list

List of countries / datasets

dataset_details

Details about the dataset

For each country/dataset the detail information is shown with the following info:

Official and common database name
Version date
Last revision date
No of food item in the database
Number of chemical parameters in the database
Food items with chemical parameters
Total number of lingual codes
Number of food group coded food items
…

How do I create a new recipe?

Select the option, enter the recipe name and it.
On the next screen you can choose the recipe ingredients from the database.
Enter the food name (or a part of the searched food name) into the “search for the ingredient” field. The food list defined by the filtered search criteria will appear on the screen. Search can be made both with English and original food name.

ingredient_selection
Selecting the ingredient based on food name

The other way to select ingredient is a search option based on food categories. This option provides search results inside of a selected food group. In the FoodBasket, the ingredients are categorized in 13 main groups (by EuroFIR foodgroup classification)

01 MILK, MILK PRODUCT OR MILK SUBSTITUTE
02 EGG OR EGG PRODUCT
03 MEAT OR MEAT PRODUCT
04 SEAFOOD OR RELATED PRODUCT
05 FAT OR OIL
06 GRAIN OR GRAIN PRODUCT
07 NUT, SEED OR KERNEL PRODUCT
08 VEGETABLE OR VEGETABLE PRODUCT
09 FRUIT OR FRUIT PRODUCT
10 SUGAR OR SUGAR PRODUCT
11 BEVERAGE (NON-MILK)
12 MISCELLANEOUS FOOD PRODUCT
13 PRODUCT FOR SPECIAL NUTRITIONAL USE OR DIETARY SUPPLEMENT

foodgroup selection
Food selection based on food group categories

ingredient amounts
Fill the amount, unit and note fields and submit the food item

When an ingredient is selected, the next step is to enter the amount and select the unit for that ingredient. FoodBasket supports the household units and converts them into grams, because the nutritive values in the database are based on 100g. After that, click to the command button. The field beside the submit command button is intended for additional comments for each food item inside the recipe. When submitted, a food item automatically appears on the list. At the bottom of the food item list, the total amount of foods is being shown (expressed in grams).
Beside the food items, you can also select the cooking method for the recipe (this list is a EuroFIR thesauri).
In the instruction field you can describe the cooking and preparing procedure.
The ‘Servings’ option defines the number of persons for whom the recipe is being prepared.
Bellow these fields in the table the nutritive value of the recipe is automatically calculated, based on selected food items, their amounts and based on servings.

cooking methods
Cooking method, preparation instructions and servings

Based on the nutritive values of the selected food items in the recipe and the number of servings defined, the program automatically calculates nutritive value of the recipe, which is shown in the table below.
Nutritive value is calculated as following:

Nutritive value of the recipe per portion
Nutritive value of the recipe per 100g
Nutritive value of the recipe per 1000 kcal

The nutritive components are categorized based on EuroFIR component group thesauri. (By clicking on the header of the component group you can close / or open it to see or hide the component parameters for the selected component group)
These are the main component groups:

Carbohydrate components
Fatty acids
Food additives
Food properties and measures
Lipid components
Minerals and inorganic components
Nitrogen components
Organic acids
Phenolic components
Proximates
Vitamins

Beside the nutritive values of the recipe, in this table the pie diagram presents the % distribution of energy value depending on source (fat, carbohydrates or protein).

nutritive values

The FoodEXplorer link connects user to the EuroFIR database and opens a detailed data screen for selected food item, with its full data source overview (selected value, unit, matrix unit, value type, method type, method indicator, method reference, title, authors, etc).

food detail from foodexplorer
The detail food information screen from FoodEXplorer

How do I save my recipe?

Click the command button and save the file on your computer.
recipe_save

How do I import my recipe?

Select the ‘Import recipe as ingredient” option, click the import recipe field, find the previously saved recipe on your computer, select it and click the command button.
recipe import

Could I use previously saved recipes as ingredients in my new recipe?

Yes, you need to select the “import recipe as ingredient” option (under the ‘search for the ingredient’ field), select the previously saved recipe file on your local computer and import it. In the imported recipe you can modify the amount of the imported recipe, or the amounts of any ingredient from the imported recipe. You can also delete food items from the imported recipe, or add new food items to it.
upload recipes

Could I import a picture for the recipe?

Yes, you have to select the “upload photo” option, select the picture file (gif, tif, jpg, bmp, …) on your local computer and import it.

How do I print

Click to the option. On the new tab the printing format is displayed and ready to print on your printer device.