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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BHNRC) » Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center » Nutrient Data Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #162022
Title: USDA NUTRIENT DATABASE FOR STANDARD REFERENCE, RELEASE NO. 16.1

Author
item Gebhardt, Susan
item Haytowitz, David
item Lemar, Linda
item Howe, Juliette
item Exler, Jacob
item Cutrufelli, Rena
item Showell, Bethany
item De Jesus, Vincent
item Holden, Joanne

Submitted to: Home Page
Publication Type: Other
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/25/2004
Publication Date: 2/25/2004
Citation: Gebhardt, S.E., Haytowitz, D.B., Lemar, L.E., Howe, J.C., Exler, J., Cutrufelli, R.L., Showell, B.A., De Jesus, V.P., Holden, J.M. 2004. Usda nutrient database for standard reference, release no. 16.1. Home Page. Available: http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp.

Interpretive Summary: The USDA Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 16-1 (SR16-1) is the major source of food composition data in the United States and provides the foundation for most public and private sector databases. It replaces the previous release, SR16, issued in July, 2003. It contains nutrient data for 6,661 food items for up to 125 food components, such as vitamins, minerals and fatty acids. This release contains minor revisions to a limited number of items in the database. The changes made to the database since the last release are limited to changes in the nutrient file for: alpha-tocopherol values for vitamin E fortified breakfast cereals, several meal replacement items, and fortified peanut butter; minerals in whole, lowfat and nonfat fluid milk; energy components in beer; carotenoid values in a couple vegetables and a soup; and nutrients in three luncheon meats. Revisions in the vitamin E values were necessitated by a change in the factor for calculating milligrams from IU based on the form of the added vitamin E. Minerals in the milk were revised based on additional data from the National Food and Nutrient Analysis Program. The data are available to search or download from the Nutrient Data Laboratory Homepage on the Internet. Currently the homepage is being accessed about 75,000 times a month. This is a particularly important release of the data because this database will be used by the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion for updating the Food Guide Pyramid and by the Food Surveys Research Group in updating the Food Survey Database used with the National Health and Examination Survey.

Technical Abstract: The USDA Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 16-1 (SR16-1) contains data for 6,661 food items for up to 125 nutrients when a complete profile is available for a food item. It replaces the previous release, SR16, issued in July,2003. Data in SR16-1 supersede values in the printed Handbooks and previous electronic releases of the database. This release contains minor revisions to a limited number of items in the database. The changes made to the database since the last release are limited to changes in the nutrient file for: alpha-tocopherol values for 27 vitamin E fortified breakfast cereals, four meal replacement items, two fortified peanut butters; and vegetable juice cocktail; minerals in whole, lowfat and nonfat fluid milk; fatty acids in one milk and butter; energy components in beer; carotenoid values in two vegetables and a soup; and nutrients in three luncheon meats. Revisions in the vitamin E values were necessitated by a change in the factor for calculating milligrams from IU based on the form of the added vitamin E. Minerals in the milk were revised based on additional data from the National Food and Nutrient Analysis Program. The database is being provided in the two relational formats (ASCII and MS Access). There are four principal files; Food Description, Nutrient Data, Gram Weight, and Footnotes and six support files: Nutrient Definition, Food Group Description, Source Code, Derivation Code, Sources of Data File, and Sources of Data Link File. An update file for the nutrient data, intended for users who have obtained SR16 and wish to perform their own updates is provided. An abbreviated file is provided as a flat file and as a MS Excel spreadsheet. The abbreviated file does not include individual fatty acids, amino acids, tocopherols, sugars or phytosterols. The data are available to search or download from the Nutrient Data Laboratory Homepage on the Internet http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp.