[Data-modeling] Modeling nutritional information

[Jeff Prucher]

This is an excellent idea!  Here are a few thoughts:
 
1) Simplest first -- the unit for the Energy property should probably be
kilocalories, since that's what it actually is.
 
2) The name of the topic should ideally be the name of the product (or a
version thereof). E.g., "Kellogg's Corn Flakes, 18 oz." so that other users
can find them and link to them. (In this case, say if they were trying to
model the product lines of cereal companies.)
 
3) The name of the "retail data" type should probably be something that more
clearly describes the topics that will use that type -- something like "Food
product" or "Packaged food" or something like that.  
 
4) I think it would be great to find a way to make the nutrient information
more flexible, rather than only providing a handful of properties. Different
countries are going to require different things on the labels, and it would
be nice not to have to change the model for every market.  I don't have a
good idea just off the top of my head, but it's worth thinking about.
 
Jeff Prucher
 
 
  _____  

From: data-modeling-bounces at freebase.com
[mailto:data-modeling-bounces at freebase.com] On Behalf Of Mohammad Al-Ubaydli
Sent: Sunday, August 24, 2008 12:23 PM
To: data-modeling at freebase.com
Subject: [Data-modeling] Modeling nutritional information



Hi all,
I am starting a model of nutritional information on food labels and can tell
that I am doing it wrong even after reading the documentation... Could
someone help me with this model?

http://www.freebase.com/view/user/idiopathic/nutritional_information

What I want is for someone to easily type in the barcode of a food item and
get back the full nutritional information. So I made two types, one called
"Retail data", and the other "Nutritients". The "Nutrients" type includes
the "Retail data" one.

However, when I try to add a record, it insists on a name. I tried this one:

http://www.freebase.com/view/guid/9202a8c04000641f8000000008ffa1d8?domain=%2
Fuser%2Fidiopathic%2Fnutritional_information

Apart from telling you all what I had for lunch today, this does not seem to
me like a sustainable naming strategy. The primary key of each entry should
be its barcode, not the compound name of the product and retailer.

What am I doing wrong, and how should I fix it? (If anyone would like to
help me fix this, I would be delighted to invite you to administer the
domain with me of course.)

Many thanks for any help, and my apologies in advance for being such a
newbie.
mohammad

Dr. Mohammad Al-Ubaydli
e me at mo.md
w www.mo.md


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