Wikifood

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

WikiFood.eu is a non-commercial internet portal for the publication of the ingredient lists of food products. WikiFood is an initiative of the Luxembourg public research institute Center de Recherche Public Henri Tudor . WikiFood.eu is financed by the Luxembourg research fund Fonds National de la Recherche (FNR) as part of the MENSSANA project ( Mobile Expert and Networking System for Systematical Analysis of Nutrition-based Allergies ) funded by the Luxembourg research program on food safety ( Sécurité alimentaire ).

aims

The aim of the WikiFood.eu portal is to pass on manufacturer-independent information on food products and the ingredients used in them to interested people via the Internet. As a target group, the operators u. a named food allergy sufferers and people with food intolerance . The portal was created in the three languages ​​German, English and French. The WikiFood idea is based on the fact that, although there is an EU-wide obligation to declare food ingredients, electronic distribution of such lists of ingredients to the end consumer, e.g. through publication in a corresponding database, is not (so far) mandatory.

WikiFood enables registered people to type in ingredient lists and warning notices from the product packaging and thus make them available to other people. Photos of the package and the printed ingredient lists should enable users to check the entries and improve them if necessary. It also enables food manufacturers to send ingredient lists of their products in electronic form to WikiFood and publish them free of charge.

development

On September 15, 2006 WikiFood.de was officially activated for the general public on the occasion of the German Allergy Congress of the Doctors' Association of German Allergologists (ÄdA). Further medical and scientific partners are the “Center Hospitalier de Luxembourg” and the “Institute for Medical Statistics, Informatics and Epidemiology” (IMSIE) of the University of Cologne. Information is currently available on around 12,500 foods and around 1,000 volunteers are registered. In the meantime, WikiFood.eu has been revised several times and supplemented with its own forum. The focus of the forum is the discussion of foodborne diseases and the exchange of individual experiences of those affected.

criticism

One point of criticism of WikiFood is that it is not a wiki in the original sense, as only registered users are allowed to edit the content. Furthermore, even registered users are not permitted to change content that has been entered directly by manufacturers. The operators justify this procedure with the fact that it is easier to ensure high data quality. The operators of WikiFood.eu point out at various points that they cannot guarantee the accuracy of all the data published there. In the beginning, only registered users were given the opportunity to search the database. The harsh criticism of this approach has led to the fact that the WikiFood database can also be searched by unregistered visitors since November 2006.

literature

The WikiFood approach and the need to distribute electronic food ingredient lists to consumers and food allergy sufferers was discussed in 2008 at the 27th EAACI Congress of the European Academy of Allergology and Clinical Immunology in Barcelona, ​​Spain and at the 10th International Food Allergy Symposium scientifically discussed in Parma, Italy:

  • Norbert Roesch, Andreas Arens, Frank Feidert, Patrick Harpes, Ralph Moesges: ICT supported disease management in food-based allergy. In: Allergy. (European Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology), Volume 63 2008, Supplement 88, pp. 586-587.
  • N. Rösch, F. Feidert, A. Arens, R. Mösges: Barcode based food identification improves the value of electronic diaries in nutrition based allergy, Proceeding of the 10th international symposium on immunological, chemical and clinical problems of food allergy. Parma (Italy), May 26-29, 2008. pp. 128-129.

More information on the labeling of food products

  • German Society for Nutrition, article on food labeling

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Directive 2000/13 / EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of March 20, 2000 on the approximation of the laws of the member states relating to the labeling and presentation of foods and the advertising thereof . Overview of changes
  2. ^ European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
  3. ↑ Food labeling. on: dge.de

Web links