Analysis of nutritional values

Our nutritional expertise is at your disposal

The Eurofins laboratories for food and feed testing in Germany offer nutritional values and nutrient analyses in food, their evaluations in the context of the sample matrix and for packaging declarations on a national, European as well as global level. You are welcome to use this expertise!

Differentiation of nutritional values from nutrients

Since November 2020, the Nutri-Score has been available on a voluntary basis in Germany which is a color and letter-based system for labelling nutritional values in food. What are nutritional values anyway and what is the difference to nutrients?

Nutritional values

Nutritional values are the basic energy-providing nutrients. They indicate the physiological value of a food and are important for building and energy metabolism. The following macronutrients are included:

energy (kJ/kcal)
fat
saturated fatty acids
carbohydrates
sugar
protein
salt (sodium chloride)

Nutrients

Nutrients are necessary for the maintenance and health of the organism. They include vitamins and minerals as well as trace elements, amino acids, oligosaccharides, nucleotides and secondary plant substances, etc. Nutrients are also called micronutrients because they are needed in much smaller quantities in the body than macronutrients. They do not supply the body with energy, but are essential for metabolism, e.g.

water- and fat-soluble vitamins, vitamin-like substances
iron, fluoride, zinc, copper, iodine, etc.
calcium, potassium, magnesium, chlorine, phosphorus, sodium, etc.

Which parameters should be analyzed for which foods, which regulations are used for assessments and which declarations are used? We will show you below.

Nutritional labelling

The Eurofins laboratory network of food and feed analysis in Germany offers you the analysis, calculation and preparation of nutrition labelling for various countries.

Mandatory information in Europe: Big 7

According to Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011^[1] on the provision of food information to consumers), nutrition lists must be printed on almost all packaged foods. This is mandatory information per 100g (ml), the so-called Big 7 (calorific value/energy, total fat, saturated fatty acids, total protein, total carbohydrates, total sugar, salt, energy) in the EU.

The basis for the Big 7 is the formerly mandatory Big 8 (calorific value, total fat, total saturated fatty acids, total protein, total carbohydrates, total sugars, dietary fibre, sodium, energy). They are required for the compilation of the Big 7, even though the declaration of dietary fibres is no longer mandatory today, but optional, and instead of sodium the calculated salt content must be indicated.

Optionally, mono- or polyunsaturated fatty acids, polyhydric alcohols (such as sugar substitutes), starch, dietary fibres as well as vitamins and minerals present in significant amounts can also be listed. These are also the basis for the Nutri-Score. Unlike the nutrition facts table and the reference intakes, the Nutri-Score does neither contain information on energy/calorific value nor the nutrients mentioned. It is an assessment of the composition of the food using capital letters.

Nutrition Facts in the USA: Big 12

In addition to the Big 7, there is also the option of analysing the Big 12. They include the common nutritional values of fat, saturated fatty acids incl. trans fatty acids (= unsaturated fatty acids), salt, total carbohydrates incl. total sugar and dietary fibre as well as protein. Furthermore, cholesterol, vitamins D, calcium and the trace elements iron and potassium are required. With regard to calculation and declaration, the specifications of the U.S Food & Drug Administration (FDA)^[2] are taken into account.

Classical nutritional value analyses

The classical nutritional values are analysed according to the following methods:

Energy

The energy value is a calculated parameter from carbohydrates, fat and protein. The analytically determined calorific value should reflect the "true" calorific value of the food. Depending on the food composition, this requires the additional analysis of dietary fibres (Big 8), organic acids (e.g. acetic acid), sugar alcohols (e.g. sorbitol) or ethyl alcohol (ethanol). These nutritional values provide different amounts of energy whose energy content is included in the formula for calculation.

Fat

The nutritional analysis of fats is usually carried out according to the Weibull-Stoldt method. This is an official method of the § 64 method collection. The samples are heated with hydrochloric acid which breaks down the bound fat. This step is followed by filtration and extraction.

Fatty acids

For the analysis of the fatty acids, the entire fatty acid spectrum is determined using GC-FID as well as the ratios of saturated, as well as mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids.

Carbohydrates

The (digestible) carbohydrates are a calculated value. Due to the difficulties in determining the individual carbohydrates directly, when reporting the carbohydrate content, the total carbohydrate content is calculated from the difference between 100 % and the remaining components using the following formula:

% carbohydrates_calculated = 100 - % (water + ash + protein + fat + insoluble organic fibre)

Sugar

There is a whole range of different sugars. The sugars used for the nutrition declaration are mono- and disaccharides like glucose, fructose, lactose, sucrose and maltose which are analysed by HPLC with RI detection, after pre-purification.

Protein

Protein: The determination of the protein content is carried out according to the Kjehldahl method, a § 64 method. The principle involves digestion, distillation and titrimetric determination of the nitrogen content in the food. Subsequently, the protein content is determined mathematically, taking into account a matrix-dependent factor (in most cases F = 6.25).

Salt

To determine the salt content, the sample material is digested by microwave and the amount of sodium compounds is quantified by ICP-OES. The analytically determined amount of sodium is then converted to the declarable salt content in accordance with regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, taking into account the factor 2.5.

Dietary fibres

According to the European Food Safety Authority EFSA (2010), non-soluble dietary fibres include non-starch polysaccharides (NSP), hemicelluloses, pectins and hydrocolloids as well as resistant starch and lignin. In addition, there are resistant oligosaccharides such as fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS) and galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS). The latter are used for the fortification of baby food. In the Asian region, the products are labelled as dietary fibres.

Water, ash

The determination of the parameters water and ash is also carried out according to the methods published for the respective food or food groups according to § 64 LFGB (= German Food and Feed Code).

Other nutrients

Our portfolio includes the analysis of a whole range of micronutrients, in addition to vitamins, minerals and trace elements, also secondary plant substances, etc.

Contact us!

You would like to order a nutrient analysis, get advice or do you have questions for our experts? Then please do not hesitate to contact us, either by approaching your personal account manager or one of the experts listed under Contact. We are looking forward to your enquiry.