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Raw, cooked, dried: why the state changes every number
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.
The state is part of the official label
In the FSVO database a food is rarely named in a single word. The label states the condition: polished rice, dry and polished rice, cooked in salted water are two separate entries, each with its own set of values. The same holds for pulses and vegetables.
This is not cosmetic: the label tells you which exact product the 22 published components refer to. Of the 1,216 generic foods in the database, many exist in several states, sometimes filed under different families: raw spinach sits with the fresh vegetables, steamed spinach with the cooked ones. Hence the first reading rule: when you write down a value, write down the whole label, brackets included. The full list of foods shows the convention at work.
Water explains almost everything
Every value refers to 100 g of the product as described. Boiling adds water; drying removes it. That water takes up room within the 100 g without contributing protein, carbohydrate or energy: in a dry product everything else is more concentrated, in a cooked product more diluted. Water content is itself one of the published components.
| Per 100 g | Rice, dry | Rice, cooked |
|---|---|---|
| Water | 12.3 g | 71.2 g |
| Energy | 352 kcal | 117 kcal |
| Protein | 7.4 g | 2.5 g |
| Carbohydrates | 78 g | 25.8 g |
Nothing vanished between the two columns: the same matter is spread over a larger weight, because the grain took up water. A figure per 100 g describes a concentration, not an amount. Two foods can even swap places depending on which state you pick.
Dried and cooked lentils: the same mechanism
Whole dried lentils hold 9.7 g of water per 100 g, 24.4 g of protein and 23.2 g of dietary fibre. Cooked without addition of fat and salt, they hold 68.7 g of water, 8.8 g of protein and 8.5 g of fibre. Energy follows: 313 kcal against 111 kcal.
Dietary fibre is carbohydrate that human digestion does not break down. The adult reference value used here is 30 g per day: 100 g of dried lentils accounts for about 77% of it, against about 28% once cooked. For protein the reference value is 50 g per day: about 49% dried, about 18% cooked. Both pairs are correct; they describe two different products. The ranking of foods highest in fibre follows the same rule, and the needs calculator publishes its formula.
Comparing: same state, or nothing
Because water shifts every figure, comparing a dry food with a cooked one says almost nothing about their composition: it mostly measures a difference in water content.
- Dry with dry, raw with raw, cooked with cooked.
- The same preparation on both sides: boiled, steamed, drained.
- The same basis: 100 g of product.
The food comparison puts both full labels side by side, so one glance is enough to check that the states match. The same caution applies to rankings: in the one for foods highest in protein, dry and dehydrated products sit at the top because 100 g of dry product holds more matter than 100 g of cooked product. That is not a bias in the sorting; it is the consequence of the chosen denominator.
What the bracketed notes mean
Some labels carry a note in brackets: “cooked (without addition of fat and salt)”, “steamed (without addition of salt)”, “cooked in salted water (uniodised)”. These notes describe the preparation protocol chosen by the source, and they have two very concrete effects.
First, they settle the salt: “without addition of salt” signals a preparation with no salt added, while “cooked in salted water (uniodised)” states the opposite and even names the type of salt. Second, they settle the fat: no cooking fat is included in the published value. If you fry steamed spinach in oil, the database’s “fat” line no longer describes what is on your plate. So anyone matching these values against a home recipe reads the brackets first: they are the exact recipe the numbers belong to, not a footnote.
When the difference goes the other way
You would expect cooking to dilute every value. The database shows this is not always so. Raw spinach holds 91.1 g of water per 100 g, steamed spinach 92 g: as much, or slightly more. Yet energy moves from 25 to 31 kcal and iron from 1.8 to 1.9 mg, while folate falls from 94.4 to 74.5 µg.
The database gives the origin of every value: A for a measured value, E for an estimated one, C for a value calculated under documented rules. For raw spinach, water, iron and folate are measured; for steamed spinach they are calculated. So the gap between two states also depends on the method chosen by the source: the detail sits in the methodology. A missing value is shown as “n/a”. No state is “better” than another.