Articles
How to read the data, not what to eat: interpreting a value per 100 g, where every figure comes from, what the percentages mean. 10 articles based on the FSVO database V7.1.
Two foods side by side looks simple: one number against another. In practice, four details decide what the result means: the preparation state, the basis used, the empty cells and where each figure comes from. Here is how to read a comparison, with figures from the FSVO database.
Updated 26 July 2026
In the official Swiss database there is no plain “rice”: there is dry rice and cooked rice, two separate entries with very different numbers. The preparation state is part of the food’s name, and it shifts every value per 100 g. Here is how to read it.
Updated 26 July 2026
On a label as in the FSVO database, energy appears twice: in kilojoules and in kilocalories. One quantity, two units, one fixed conversion factor. Here is what each number measures, where it comes from, and why 2,000 kcal is not your personal requirement.
Updated 26 July 2026
The Swiss database does not group carbohydrates the way most people assume: fibre is counted separately, and the “of which sugars” line never adds to the total. Here is what each line holds, and how to read the gap between carbohydrates and sugars on real foods.
Updated 26 July 2026
Omega-3 is a family of polyunsaturated fatty acids. Three of them come up again and again: ALA from plant sources, EPA and DHA from the sea. The Swiss database does not show the three forms separately, only their sum. Here is how to read that single figure, and what it leaves out.
Updated 26 July 2026
Every figure in the FSVO database carries a letter: A for measured, E for estimated, C for calculated. That small marker says how the value was obtained: in a laboratory, by estimation or by calculation. Here is what it means, and what it changes when you read a food page.
Updated 26 July 2026
In the Swiss food composition database, “protein” is one column out of 22: a quantity in grams per 100 g of food. Here is what that figure actually measures, why dried products top the ranking, and how to read it without mistaking the weight it refers to.
Updated 26 July 2026
A Swiss label states salt in grams; the FSVO database states sodium in milligrams. They are two ways of writing the same measurement, linked by one fixed factor. Here is how to move from one to the other, and how to read each figure for what it is.
Updated 26 July 2026
On every food page of this site, a “% NRV” column sits next to the values per 100 g. That percentage compares the food’s content with a reference amount set for an average adult. Here is what it measures, and what it does not.
Updated 26 July 2026
On this site, as on every Swiss label, each figure refers to 100 g. That is no accident: only a fixed quantity makes two foods comparable. What remains is the second step: turning those theoretical 100 g into the plate actually in front of you.
Updated 26 July 2026
