PhilFCT at the Palengke: Compare Filipino Food Nutrients Without Raw-versus-Cooked Errors

DOST–FNRI’s Philippine Food Composition Tables, or PhilFCT, provide nutrient records for foods consumed in the Philippines. The useful first step is matching the food you actually have: its name, preparation and edible part. A raw vegetable entry cannot automatically describe an equal weight of that vegetable after boiling, and a finished dish containing oil needs more than its vegetable’s entry. This worksheet keeps those choices visible before calculating a serving estimate. Source 1 Source 2

Choose the food record and weight basis

Choose three ordinary candidate foods—such as fresh pechay, cooked munggo and boiled saba—and one planned serving for each. Keep a phone or notebook, kitchen scale and the PhilFCT database open. Do not copy any unverified calorie values into the worksheet; record the exact food record title, units, preparation state and date checked. If the database is temporarily inaccessible, use the blank worksheet rather than inventing the missing values.

Build a traceable nutrient worksheet

1. Open the official FNRI PhilFCT resource and search each food using Filipino and English names. Prefer a matching form, such as boiled versus raw, when it is available.
2. Record the food ID, full record title, preparation state, nutrient unit and report date or release. PhilFCT reports nutrient amounts per 100 g edible portion. An edible-portion percentage describes yield from the purchased food; it is not a second factor to apply after weighing an already edible serving.
3. Weigh the edible serving in the same state as the selected entry. If using a cooked entry, weigh the cooked, drained edible food. For a hypothetical 1 kg purchase yielding 700 g usable food, yield is 70%; a weighed 120 g edible serving remains 120 g for the nutrient calculation.
4. Scale any nutrient amount mathematically by edible serving grams divided by 100. A 120 g portion uses a multiplier of 1.20, but only if the database record and preparation state match.
5. For a single-ingredient entry, separately account for oil, coconut milk, sugar or sauce actually eaten. If you use a matching complete-dish entry, do not add its usual ingredients again. Any estimate from raw ingredients also needs the cooked yield and a stated method for nutrient changes during cooking.
6. Compare the results in a three-row worksheet and write the uncertainty beside each value: brand, variety, method, portion size or a missing matching entry.

Sources: Source 1 Source 2

Keep edible yield separate from portion size

If a record reports N units per 100 g edible portion and the matching serving weighs E grams, calculate N × E ÷100. Thus 120 g uses a 1.20 multiplier. This estimates the serving from a reference food, not a laboratory analysis of the actual plate. The canned-bean edible-weight guide illustrates a related distinction between pack weight, drained food and what reaches the dish. Source 2

Check the worksheet against the actual plate

Keep three worksheet rows, one per food, with the food ID, preparation state, edible grams, nutrient and unit, calculation and limitation. A family breakfast plan using Pinggang Pinoy addresses food-group and portion choices alongside these nutrient estimates; a spreadsheet alone does not decide the whole meal.

Database limits and source records

Leave the nutrient cell blank until the matching entry is retrieved. The pechay, munggo and saba examples here are worksheet prompts, not verified nutrient values for those foods. Keep an exported report or clear record of the data used so a future revision can be checked against the same source. Source 1