Background

    Trans-fatty acids have brought more and more attention because of recent discovery of the adverse effect on raising blood cholesterol thus increasing the risks of heart diseases. On the other hand, people's intakes of trans-fatty acids from food products have risen as manufacturers have increased their use of partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. Nutrient composition data for trans-fatty acids are not readily available from most computer databases and publications, although United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has published a set of supplemental data for trans-fatty acid compositions in food.

    This USDA publication provides analytical data on 214 selected foods containing trans fatty acids. All of the data were obtained under USDA contract and presented in text format at USDA's Web site. The samples were analyzed by capillary gas-liquid chromatography, and the studies were monitored for quality control. More detailed information on the analytical methodology and quality control can be found at this document provided by USDA.

Purpose

    To setup a Web database (http://napa.ntdt.udel.edu/trans/) for fast and convenient retrieval of the trans-fatty acid data published by USDA. To exam fatty acid profile of a food item, viewer can search the database by name, partial name, or browsing through food categories.

Procedures

1. The basic configuration of the Web server is Internet Information Server 4.0 on a NT 4.0 based Pentium II PC (1/98).
2. Convert text version data to Microsoft Access database (2/27/98)
3. Establish Open DataBase Connectivity (ODBC) (2/27/98)
4. Constructing the web site and SQL query (3/2/98)
5. Constructing a new web site based on Active Server Pages to include more flexible the queries, such as query for more than one item and comparing the fat content of similar items. (3/2/2001)

Future Plans

    This project is a pilot trial to explore the the Internet technology and database connectivity. Activities that could be benefit from this technology are nutrient analysis, online survey, and information management for distance education. Suggestions and comments are welcome.

Web designer and database programmer