The Malawi Food Composition Database: Importance, Development Process, Applications, and Future Priorities

The importance of food composition data has been recognized as far back as the 1940’s where UK based scientists McCance and Widdowson stated that “a knowledge of the chemical composition of food is the first essential in dietary treatment of disease, or in any quantitative study of human nutrition.” This statement remains highly relevant in the present, and particularly in many African countries where the response to complex problems of food insecurity, undernutrition, overweight/obesity and related non-communicable disease sequelae cannot be achieved without reliable food composition data. Yet, less than half of African countries have reliable up-to date food composition tables.

Join this webinar to learn more on the collaborative effort between the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Nutrition, the Lilongwe University of Agriculture & Natural Resources and the South African Medical Research Council to develop Malawi’s first food composition table/database. The FCT was developed through an extensive process of data gathering and compilation following methodology endorsed by the FAO/INFOODS international network of food data systems.