This Technical Annex describes the framework for the standardisation of food composition data carried out by the EuroFIR Network of Excellence (2005-2010).The term "food composition data" includes all information identifying and describing foods and their components. Recommendations from EuroFIR for food composition database management and exchange have been included alongside those from other organisations globally. The different sections explain the most important items for standardised food composition data such as: Data structure, which provides an overview of the proposed data structure specification Entity specifications, which are required to describe foods and any exchange of data Standard vocabulary (thesauri), which aligns terminology Programming language, which enables data exchange KeywordsXML: programming language that defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human- and machine-readableEntity: object needed to describe food composition dataRetention factor: what is retained in nutrient content after food treatment (e.g. cooking)Properties: different qualities that an entity can have (e.g. cooked, raw)