A food composition database for assessing nitrate intake from plant-based foods

Liezhou Zhong; Lauren C Blekkenhorst; Nicola P Bondonno; Marc Sim; Richard J Woodman; Kevin D Croft; Joshua R Lewis; Jonathan M Hodgson; Catherine P Bondonno

doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2022.133411

A food composition database for assessing nitrate intake from plant-based foods

Food Chem. 2022 Nov 15:394:133411. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2022.133411. Epub 2022 Jun 7.

Authors

Liezhou Zhong¹, Lauren C Blekkenhorst², Nicola P Bondonno³, Marc Sim², Richard J Woodman⁴, Kevin D Croft⁵, Joshua R Lewis⁶, Jonathan M Hodgson⁷, Catherine P Bondonno⁸

Affiliations

¹ Nutrition & Health Innovation Research Institute, School of Medical and Health Sciences, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, Western Australia, Australia.
² Nutrition & Health Innovation Research Institute, School of Medical and Health Sciences, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, Western Australia, Australia; Discipline of Internal Medicine, Medical School, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia; Royal Perth Hospital Research Foundation, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
³ Nutrition & Health Innovation Research Institute, School of Medical and Health Sciences, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, Western Australia, Australia; The Danish Cancer Society Research Centre, Copenhagen, Denmark.
⁴ College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
⁵ School of Biomedical Sciences, Royal Perth Hospital Unit, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
⁶ Nutrition & Health Innovation Research Institute, School of Medical and Health Sciences, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, Western Australia, Australia; Discipline of Internal Medicine, Medical School, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia; Royal Perth Hospital Research Foundation, Perth, Western Australia, Australia; Centre for Kidney Research, Children's Hospital at Westmead, School of Public Health, Sydney Medical School, the University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
⁷ Nutrition & Health Innovation Research Institute, School of Medical and Health Sciences, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, Western Australia, Australia; Discipline of Internal Medicine, Medical School, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
⁸ Nutrition & Health Innovation Research Institute, School of Medical and Health Sciences, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, Western Australia, Australia; Discipline of Internal Medicine, Medical School, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia; Royal Perth Hospital Research Foundation, Perth, Western Australia, Australia. Electronic address: c.bondonno@ecu.edu.au.

PMID: 35753259
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2022.133411

Abstract

An up-to-date nitrate food composition database of plant-based foods is lacking. Such a resource is imperative to obtain a robust assessment of dietary nitrate intakes and facilitate more empirical evaluation of health implications. We updated and expanded our 2017 vegetable nitrate database by including data published between 2016 and 2021, and data on fruits, cereals, herbs, spices, pulses and nuts (1980 - 2021). Of the collated nitrate contents for 264 plant-based foods from 64 countries, 120 were obtained from three or more references. Despite substantial variations, leaf vegetables were the top nitrate-containing foods, followed by stem & shoot vegetables, herbs and spices, root vegetables, flower vegetables, tuber vegetables, nuts, fruit vegetables, legume/seed vegetables, fruits and cereals. Banana and strawberry contained far higher amounts of nitrate than previously recognised. In conjunction with the recent animal-based food nitrate & nitrite database, this database can now be used to evaluate dietary nitrate intake in clinical and epidemiological studies.

Keywords: Dietary intake; Food composition database; Fruit; Nitrate; Nitrite; Plant-based foods; Vegetable.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Animals
Diet
Edible Grain / chemistry
Fruit / chemistry
Nitrates* / analysis
Nuts / chemistry
Spices / analysis
Vegetables*

Substances

Nitrates