Food product development around the world to be aided by Dutch ‘food dictionary’

Posted by AFN Staff Writers on 9th October 2012

A consortium of Dutch Universities has announced the forthcoming release of a compendium comprising over 20 Million documents that will hasten food product development and new food processes. The compendium is part of the ‘Development of Food Ontologies’ project, supported by an initial 445,000 Euro grant from the Netherlands eScience Centre.

The Radboud University Nijmegen, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and food research company Wageningen UR have compiled a database of books and scientific literature, as well as summaries on the research. The database is said to be able to screen over 20 Million documents in a short time frame, potentially easing the lives of product developers.

It is said that this ‘food dictionary’ will be able to bring knowledge from agricultural, medical and social sciences to provide product and ingredient combinations that are yet to be explored. The project researchers expect the ‘Development of Food Ontologies’ project will provide a strong market incentive to lead product development in the food industry.