Research Guides: FSCI 232 Food Science: Websites &amp; How to Evaluate Them

Evaluate Online Resources

When looking for resources online, make sure you evaluate their accuracy and credibility by getting a second opinion! This means, verify the information by looking up the claims in scholarly, peer-reviewed articles found in subject databases.

Watch the tutorial: Evaluating Online Resources

CRAPP Test for Evaluating Websites

Critical Elements for Website Evaluation

1. Evaluate information on the web by asking yourself the following questions:

what is this site's PURPOSE?
to make money?
to entertain?
to provide information?

2. Check the URL to see the domain name extension.

URL’s are often a good indication of the origin of the page. The domain name is found after “http://” and “www.” These are some common domain name extensions:

.info (commercial)
.gov (US government)
.org (any organization )
.net (network)
.edu (educational)
% (can mean it is a personal website)
.com
.biz
.name
.pro

3. The AUTHOR of the page can be an indicator for the quality of the information.

Knowing who wrote the page is important because it tells you about the quality of the information you will find. As you look at the page, ask the following questions:

What is the person’s or association’s authority to post on this subject?
Is there a contact address or number (are they willing to answer questions, take feedback)?
If the author is a person, can you find a little bit about their background on the website or elsewhere?

4. WHEN was the site created? is there a date given on the website?

The last time it was updated can be an indicator of how relevant the information is. No dates or an old date could indicate that the site is abandoned and the information is stale. Ask the following questions:

Is the sites "created xxxx" date current?
When was the site LAST UPDATED?

More help with evaluating online resources

Learn about Evaluating Sources: CRAP Test The CRAP Test, developed by Molly Beestrum, is a helpful tool to use when trying to decide if a website is a credible, valid source. The CRAP Test looks at four major areas: currency, reliability, authority and purpose. When determining whether a website is credible or not, evaluate it on those four areas. Here are a few suggestions to help you think through your evaluation process.
Evaluating Internet Resources
Critical Thinking: Internet Detective

Recommended Websites

Learn how to evaluate online resources here

ACEND - Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics is the world's largest organization of food and nutrition professionals committed to improving the nation's health and advancing the profession of dietetics through
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research, education, and advocacy.
AGRIS Promoting accessibility of scientific information and digital data in food & agriculture Since 1974, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has provided support to its member countries to make their research outputs visible and accessible through the International System for Agricultural Science and Technology (AGRIS); one of the most comprehensive search engines in food and agricultural scientific literature providing free access to millions of bibliographic records in 90 different languages. AGRIS facilitates the AGRIS Network with up to hundreds of organisations worldwide contributing knowledge and data to the AGRIS platform, resulting in a multilingual bibliographic collection of food and agricultural scientific research with special attention to scientific information produced in the global south. Therefore, AGRIS is used by whoever is inclined to find literature on any of FAO’s areas of interest.
CDC - Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is one of the major operating components of the Department of Health and Human Services
Directory of Open Access Journals DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) was launched in 2003 with 300 open access journals. Today, this independent index contains almost 17 500 peer-reviewed, open access journals covering all areas of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, arts and humanities. Open access journals from all countries and in all languages are accepted for indexing. DOAJ is financially supported by many libraries, publishers and other like-minded organisations. Supporting DOAJ demonstrates a firm commitment to open access and the infrastructure that supports it. DOAJ is a co-author to the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing that provide the basis of the DOAJ basic criteria for inclusion.
EPA - Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters
FDA - Food and Drug Administration Food and Drug Administration is a federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services
FSIS - Food Safety Inspection Service Food Safety Inspection Service issues public health alerts for ready-to-eat meat and poultry products due to possible foreign matter contamination
IFT - Institute of Food Technologists he Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) has been a forum for passionate science of food professionals and technologists to collaborate, learn, and contribute all with the goal of inspiring and transforming
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collective scientific knowledge into innovative solutions for the benefit of all people around the world. As a scientific community grounded in purpose, IFT feeds the minds that feed the world.
The Merck Index For over 120 years The Merck Index has been regarded as the most authoritative and reliable source of information on chemicals, drugs and biologicals. Now this trusted resource is available online from the Royal Society of Chemistry.The Merck Index* Online offers the same highly authoritative information as the print edition in a convenient and easily searchable full text database. It contains over 11,500 monographs – including historic records not available in the print edition. The Merck Index* Online will be updated regularly with accurate information curated by experts.
USDA - U.S. Department of Agriculture The USDA helps to keep America's farmers and ranchers in business and ensure that the nation's commercial supply of meat, poultry, and egg products is safe, wholesome, and properly labeled. They also help to
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ensure the health and care of animals and plants and the health of the land through sustainable management, and they work to improve the economy and quality of life in all of rural America.
USDA Current Research Information System The Current Research Information System (CRIS) provides documentation and reporting for ongoing agricultural, food science, human nutrition, and forestry research, education and extension activities for the United States Department of Agriculture, with a focus on the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) grant programs. Projects are conducted or sponsored by USDA research agencies, state agricultural experiment stations, land-grant universities, other cooperating state institutions, and participants in NIFA-administered grant programs, including Small Business Innovation Research, and Agriculture and Food Research Initiative. The Planning, Accountability, & Reporting Staff office is responsible for maintaining CRIS. CRIS was authorized by the Secretary of Agriculture in 1966 to document the publicly-funded activities of the USDA/State agricultural and forestry research system. The system has expanded to include a number of education, extension and integrated activities. Most CRIS data is available to the public through a number of web sites. CRIS projects relating to human nutrition are provided annually to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for inclusion in the Human Nutrition Research and Information Management database (HNRIM). In CRIS, these projects are designated as the subfile, "HNRIMS." Updates occur annually; therefore, all human nutrition projects in CRIS may not yet be identified for inclusion in the HNRIMS subfile.
USDA Food Safety Research FSIS is part of a science-based national system to ensure food safety and food defense. FSIS ensures food safety through the authorities of the Federal Meat Inspection Act, the Poultry Products Inspection Act, and the Egg Products Inspection Act, as well as humane animal handling through the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act.
USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference Offers access to food descriptions, food group data, nutrient information and a nutrient definition file. Contains a weight file, source code information and a description of measures used.