First Australian whole grain database

The first Australian whole grain database has been developed to provide nutrition practitioners and consumers with information about the types of products containing whole grains in the Australian market and their whole grain content.

Sayne Dalton, dietitian (APD) and PhD candidate at the Smart Foods Centre, University of Wollongong, developed the database to assist in addressing the challenges involved in encouraging consumers to eat more whole grain foods.

The database provides information on the whole grain content of foods such as breads and breakfast cereals, which may contain a significant proportion of non-whole grain components, such as refined grains or added sugar. This information can be used in a number of ways, eg:

• To assist nutrition professionals to identify and direct consumers to foods higher in whole grain.
• To provide a resource for nutritional monitoring of the marketplace.
• To provide data to measure whole grain intakes in dietary studies.

The database is the first of its kind in Australia and one of only a handful in the world that will allow more accurate analysis of whole grain intakes and provide support to research the benefits of whole grains in the diet.

The database was developed by collating data on 385 food products from 46 food companies. Key foods were raw grains, pasta, breakfast cereals, breads and savoury biscuits.

The study suggests that careful food choices are required to assist consumers to identify the most whole grain dense choices. Despite the variety of whole grain products identified in the market, there was marked variation in the whole grain content of products in most food categories. For instance, bread products ranged from 5.1 to 70.0 g whole grain per 100 g product; while ready-to-eat breakfast cereals ranged from 6.0 to 100.0 g per 100 g product.

To identify whole grain-dense food choices in the supermarket, consumers are also advised to look out for products which are ‘high’ or ‘very high’ in whole grain.

The study results and database were published in the Journal of Food Composition and Analysis.

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