What is food equivalence?

Food equivalence means replacing one foodstuff with another, which can belong to the same food group or to a different food group, provided both foodstuffs have similar nutritional properties.

100 g porridge oats
10 g fibre

170 g peas 
10 g fibre

What is food equivalence used for?

Equivalents help us vary our food and eat a balanced diet when there are variations in the availability of food, prohibitions or personal likes and dislikes.

If we choose not to eat certain foodstuffs or we must not eat them, for example meat on principle, pork for religious reasons or peanuts due to a food allergy, the variety of food available means we can still eat a fulfilling, balanced diet.