EBASIS (Bioactive Substances in Food Information Systems), a web-based database that contains compositional and biological effects data for bioactive compounds of plant origin, has been updated with new data on fruits and vegetables, wheat and, due to some evidence of potential beneficial effects, extended to include meat bioactives. eBASIS remains one of only a handful of comprehensive and searchable databases, with up-to-date coherent and validated scientific information on the composition of food bioactives and their putative health benefits. The database has a user-friendly, efficient, and flexible interface facilitating use by both the scientific community and food industry. Overall, eBASIS contains data for 267 foods, covering the composition of 794 bioactive compounds, from 1147 quality-evaluated peer-reviewed publications, together with information from 567 publications describing beneficial bioeffect studies carried out in humans. This paper highlights recent updates and expansion of eBASIS and the newly-developed link to a probabilistic intake model, allowing exposure assessment of dietary bioactive compounds to be estimated and modelled in human populations when used in conjunction with national food consumption data. This new tool could assist small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the development of food product health claim dossiers for submission to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).

The UK national food composition dataset, maintained at the Quadram Institute Bioscience, is a valuable national resource for a variety of users. The UK has a long history of compiling and utilising food composition data, which started for the specific purpose of understanding war‐time nutrition, and is now fundamental to multiple areas of research, policy, food manufacturing and consumer behaviour. The rise of mHealth technologies has brought food and nutrition data direct to the consumer and presents new challenges for food data compilers relating to coverage of foods and nutrients, and accessibility and transparency of data. In addition, emerging efforts in sustainable food production, changing diets and the ever‐increasing burden of non‐communicable diseases requires an integrated approach that will span the agri‐food, nutrition and health space. In order to achieve this, there needs to be continued efforts in food data standardisation, international collaboration and stronger emphasis in making food and nutrition data FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable). The UK national food composition data and the emerging initiatives in food and nutrition it supports are playing an important role in the future development of healthy and sustainable UK diets.