Datasets for successful optimisation
For successful optimisation, Optimeal needs four types of data: a starting diet, nutritional boundaries that determine what is a healthy diet, the nutritional values of foods and the environmental impacts of foods. Optimeal 3.0 will have a European focus. This means that the default diet, which is included in the Optimeal licence, will be a European diet based on statistics from the
European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). The nutritional boundaries that define a healthy diet will also be based as far as possible on information from the EFSA. The nutritional values of foods, such as vitamins and nutrients, are derived mainly from data from seven European countries. The environmental impacts of the foods in the starting diet are determined for the European situation by a life cycle assessment (LCA). The datasets and the methods are explained in a methodology document.
In addition, more detailed and region-specific datasets have been developed that consist of diets, nutritional boundaries by gender, age category and activity level, as well as nutritional values and environmental impacts. The first regional dataset to be released will be for the Netherlands. These extensive datasets will be provided under additional licences.