Location: Nutrition, Food Safety/Quality
Project Number: 0204-41510-001-106-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 13, 2023
End Date: May 30, 2024
Objective:
Public policy concerning food and nutrition is dependent on the availability of reliable and current information regarding the nutritional content of commonly consumed foods. The USDA and USDA-ARS have maintained such data for more than 100 years, but the complexity of the current food system in the U.S. makes it impossible to continue the work without partnerships with the private sector. The USDA-ARS and GS1 US enter into this agreement for the purpose of enhancing the nutritional information in the ARS National Nutrient Database, and this agreement will provide the framework and support to conduct the project in order to ultimately fulfill the objectives of the established public-private partnership.
The focus of this agreement is to continue to maintain and obtain food and beverage product data for the USDA GBFPD as well as manage the public private partnership. Drive awareness and education of the USDA Global Branded Food Products Database. Inform and motivate manufacturers to voluntarily submit nutritional data for the food items produced and sold in the U.S. supply chain - expand the product listing and use of the database domestically and internationally. Continue automated data collection, data validations and data publications to the USDA Global Branded Food Products Database.
Approach:
GS1 US is a not-for-profit member organization established over 50 years ago by the grocery industry to administer and manage Universal Product Codes, also known as U.P.C.'s. The U.P.C. remains one of the most successful standards in history - with billions of barcodes scanned daily worldwide. This method of identifying products and capturing product data has evolved into what is now known as the GS1 System, the world's most widely used supply chain standards. GS1 Standards continue to be widely implemented across the food supply chain, as is the GS1 Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN®) which is used to share GS1 standards-based product information among trading partners. There are GS1 offices located in more than 115 countries as the global standards are used everyday in more than 150 countries around the world. With many across industry looking to leverage the GDSN to populate the ARS National Nutrient Database, USDA ARS will provide funding to GS1 US ("cooperator") for services to:
1) Enhance product data and use of the USDA GBFPD with other U.S. government agencies as well as other countries and identified/approved. This includes transparency and data collection for foods and beverages in support of domestic nutrition programs such as the Food Distribution Program executed by USDA FNS as well as CNS and the Child Nutrition Database. Understanding agency needs for nutrition programs/initiatives.
2) identifying how to meet these needs by expanding the database, with food categories, additional data collection, and new data validations.
