EURRECA nutritional planning and dietary assessment software tool: NutPlan.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: 'NutPlan' is developed within the EURRECA Network of Excellence (EURopean micronutrient RECommendations Aligned (http://www.eurreca.org). It is a user-friendly software programme with multiple functions: individual and group nutrition planning, recipe calculation, creating food labels, diet planning and nutrient intake assessment. This paper describes the newly developed software and its features.

SUBJECTS/METHODS: 'NutPlan' contains the following databases: foods, dish recipes, meals, menus, average menus and glossary. These databases enable diet planning and diet analysis by comparing foods, dishes, meals or menus with currently available nutritional recommendations accessible by a link to EURRECA tool Nutri-RecQuest to meet individual/group nutritional needs.The software is upgraded by inserting new items (for example, foods, dishes, meals) and for a connection to other software programmes, thus allowing more advanced calculations to be completed.

CONCLUSION

'NutPlan' might be the software of choice for individual and group diet planning. It is aimed particularly at Eastern European and West Balkan countries, which currently lack dietary software. It is envisaged for use by small and medium enterprises in the food industry, as well as by health professionals, researchers and policy makers, and can be recommended for educational purposes. Given its characteristics of being upgraded to include new country-specific food data/database, it can be recognized as an important tool in nutritional capacity development in the Central Eastern European and other regions.