FoodON: A Global Farm-to-Fork Food Ontology

1. FoodON: A Global Farm-to-Fork Food Ontology
Emma Griffiths1, Damion Dooley2, Pier Luigi Buttigieg3, Robert Hoendorf4, Matthew
Lange5, Fiona Brinkman1, Will Hsiao2
1Dept of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 2BC Public Health Lab, Vancouver, BC, Canada,
3Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Helmholtz-Zentrum fur Polar-und Meeresforschung, Bremerhaven, Germany, 4Dept of Computer Science, King
Abdullah University, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia, 5Dept of Food Science and Technology, University of California, Davis, CA, USA
Introduction
• Many different food dictionaries used for different
purposes, different institutions, different regions
• Lack of a standardized food vocabulary impacts data
sharing and research, health and safety, economics, cultural
practices and more
FOOD (definition): any nutritious substance that
people or animals eat or drink, or that plants absorb,
in order to maintain life and growth.
Development of the FoodON Food Ontology
Methods
1. Engage Users
2. Identify Use Cases
3. Harmonize Existing Resources
4. Develop data structure
Existing Resources:
www.connectfood.com
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by funding from Genome Canada,
AllerGen NCE and the European Research Council (ABYSS). A
travel grant was also awarded to E.G. from ICBO.
Data Structure:
1. Food Safety:
source attribution
during outbreaks,
contamination
trace back, risk
assessment
2. Nutrition and
Chemical Exposure:
food additives,
nutritive content,
diet guidelines
3. Food Allergy:
hazard
identification,
allergy research
and policy building
4. Food Security:
production,
storage, availability,
distribution
5. Economics:
import/export,
trade, purchasing
trends
6. Sustainability:
ecosystems, food
webs
Use Cases:
The FoodON Consortium
A Harmonized Farm-to-Fork Food Ontology will Facilitate
Data Sharing between Public Health, Regulatory,
Development and Research Communities Worldwide.
• FoodOn (Food Ontology) Consortium:
https://github.com/FoodOntology
Community contributions welcome.
Contact us! ega12@sfu.ca
Examine Resources
Results
User Engagement:
Interview End Users
FoodON
CliniciansEpidemiologists &
Laboratory Analysts Information
Management
Systems
Outbreak
Investigation Tools
+ =
Existing
Ontologies
Ecologists
Public Health
Researchers
Food Regulators
and Policy Makers
Food Databases
Advocacy Groups
Agricultural Experts
• Structured according to OBO Foundry principles
• Proposed upper levels categories: Food composition, pre-
collection (farming), environment, collection features
(season, harvesting technology), storage and distribution,
culinary preparation and packaging, food safety factors,
consumption patterns
Consensus and International Partnerships Are
Critical For Wide Adoption of FoodON.
FoodON will require
input from multiple
domains.
www.cdc.gov