Location: Food for Health of People and the Environment Lab
2023 Annual Report
Objectives
The project has four objectives to provide the research infrastructure necessary to address major questions in food composition, assessment of food and nutrient intake, and research diet design for humans participating in studies addressing the impact of food and its components on biological outcomes:
Objective 1. Develop and implement plans for obtaining analytical data for foods to be included in USDA FoodData Central. [Component 2, Problem Statement 2A]
Objective 2. Establish links between datasets/data types to enable research relating to food composition to nutrition and food industry/agricultural practices. [Component 1, Problem Statement 1A]
Objective 3. Design and implement research diets based on study specifications for human volunteers participating in CRIS project plans. [Component 3, Problem Statement 3B]
Objective 4. Implement information technology advances to enhance transparency and functionality of databases and related data science research. [Component 2, Problem Statement 2A]
Approach
USDA FoodData Central (FDC) is the center of the USDA-based food composition information web. It is an integrated data system that presently provides—in one place—five distinct types of data containing information on food and nutrient profiles. Each data type has a unique purpose. The Human Studies Facility (HSF) serves to design and implement research diets based on study specifications for human volunteers as part of CRIS project plans and to assist in the acquisition and preparation of foods for analysis for inclusion in FDC. The approach for each objective is as follows:
1. Working group of food scientists, nutritionists, analytical chemists, data scientists, and stakeholders will establish plans for selecting, prioritizing, and analyzing foods to be included in FoodData Central.
2. Informaticians and nutrition/food scientists will design and maintain datasets in FDC and establish links within FDC and with external databases to enable research relating food components to nutrition and food industry/agricultural practices.
3. Together with scientists conducting human research studies, HSF staff will design, prepare and implement research diets based on the study specifications and assist in the analyses of the diet composition.
4. Scientists and IT specialists will employ state-of-the-art technology to enhance transparency and functionality of databases and support data science research.
Progress Report
The Food for Health of People and the Environment Laboratory (FHPEL) is a new unit that was established under the Beltsville Human Nutrition Center (BHNRC) in October of 2023. Foods for the October 2023 release of FoodData Central are being collected, processed and analyzed. New human studies protocol is in progress (second since the Pandemic) and human volunteers are being screened and recruited.
Accomplishments
