The Norwegian Food Composition Table was last updated in November 2023. The website is a service provided by the Norwegian Food Safety Authority. The product contains 2049 food items, divided into various food groups and their nutritional content. It is possible to search directly for a food item or navigate among food groups and nutrients.
Each food item has its own page with information about nutritional content, classification, and sources. Most of the content is presented in tables. The nutritional content includes values such as carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, and minerals.
The nutritional values on the food item pages are primarily presented per 100 g. This is the most common way to display the quantity content in food items. It is also the way the food industry usually presents nutritional values.
To make it easier and faster to find the nutritional content of food items that are often presented per piece or per slice, we have also chosen to include several types of portion sizes. Read more about the portion sizes in the Food Table.
At the top of the page, there are two pie charts with information about the composition of energy-providing nutrients. The first shows the amount in grams, and the second shows the distribution of energy in the food item. These diagrams are added to make the information more digestible.
Recommended daily intake shows how much a person gets in terms of the recommended daily intake of vitamins and minerals in percentage. This feature is located next to the content of nutrients in a given amount of food to show how much the food item covers of the recommended daily intake. The daily intake is divided per group, mostly by gender and age.
For example, the function shows how much an apple contributes to the recommended daily intake of each individual vitamin and mineral for “women, ages 18-24.” The values for recommended daily intake are taken from the Norwegian Directorate of Health’s Reference Values for Energy and Nutrients.
It is possible to compare several different food items by clicking the “compare” button on the food or food group page. Then, a small window will pop up at the bottom of the page with the respective food item. If this is done more than twice, you can click “compare now,” and a separate page will appear with all the selected food items and their nutritional content.
The food items in the Food Composition Table are described using a classification system called LanguaL. LanguaL stands for “Langua aLimentaria” or “language of food.” This language makes it possible to give standardized descriptions of the food items.
Each food item has its own food item ID consisting of five digits.
Each food item page has sources for each nutrient value. Check “Show sources” to display these in the tables. You can read more about each source by clicking on it.
We note that the Food Composition Table discusses food categories. It is the responsibility of the businesses to ensure that the specific products are labeled and marketed in accordance with the current rules for the use of nutrition and health claims as well as food information about, and marketing of, food products.
In the Food Composition Table, the term “plant-based” is currently used for food items that serve the same purpose as dairy and meat products. Both this term and other vegetarian-related terms are under review, and the Food Composition Table will be updated with new names for food items and food groups when the terms are clarified.
Questions and feedback can be sent to matvaretabellen@mattilsynet.no.
All data in the Food Table is available in both JSON and EDN formats through a small API.
The source code for the food composition table is open and freely available on Github.