Proximates are used in the analysis of biological materials as a decomposition of a human-consumable good into its major constituents.

What people consider proximates may vary, but usually includes:

• Water
• Carbohydrate
  Carbohydrate
  A carbohydrate is an organic compound with the empirical formula ; that is, consists only of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, with a hydrogen:oxygen atom ratio of 2:1 . However, there are exceptions to this. One common example would be deoxyribose, a component of DNA, which has the empirical...
  
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• Protein
  Protein
  Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...
  
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• Dietary fibres
• Fatty acid
  Fatty acid
  In chemistry, especially biochemistry, a fatty acid is a carboxylic acid with a long unbranched aliphatic tail , which is either saturated or unsaturated. Most naturally occurring fatty acids have a chain of an even number of carbon atoms, from 4 to 28. Fatty acids are usually derived from...
  
  s
• Ash
  Ash (analytical chemistry)
  In analytical chemistry, ashing is the process of mineralization for preconcentration of trace substances prior to chemical analysis. Ash is the name given to all non-aqueous residue that remains after a sample is burned, and consist mostly of metal oxides....
  
  
• Vitamin
  Vitamin
  A vitamin is an organic compound required as a nutrient in tiny amounts by an organism. In other words, an organic chemical compound is called a vitamin when it cannot be synthesized in sufficient quantities by an organism, and must be obtained from the diet. Thus, the term is conditional both on...
  
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• Dietary mineral
  Dietary mineral
  Dietary minerals are the chemical elements required by living organisms, other than the four elements carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen present in common organic molecules. Examples of mineral elements include calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, zinc, and iodine...
  
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• Alcohol
  Alcohol
  In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....
  
  

What makes proximates particular is that the total of their presence in the food must always sum up to 100%. The nutritional information on food containers usually specifies the nutrients in terms of proximates, but these seldom add up to 100%, indicating that the manufacturer left out some of the insignificant ones such as water.