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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BHNRC) » Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center » Food Surveys Research Group » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #166183
Title: THE USDA FOOD AND NUTRIENT DATABASE FOR DIETARY STUDIES, 1.0

Author
item Ahuja, Jaspreet
item Montville, Janice
item Haggerty, Etta Susanne
item Ingwersen, Linda
item Raper, Nancy
item Steinfeldt, Lois
item Anderson, Ellen
item Anand, Jaswinder
item Tong, Amy
item Omolewa-Tomobi, Grace
item Heendeniya, Kaushalya
item Enns, Cecilia
item Lacomb, Randy
item Perloff, Betty

Submitted to: World Wide Web
Publication Type: Other
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/17/2004
Publication Date: 6/21/2004
Citation: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Research Service. 2004. USDA Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies, Version 1.0. Available: http://www.barc.usda.gov/bhnrc/foodsurvey/home.htm.

Interpretive Summary: This release of the USDA Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies (FNDDS), 1.0, can be downloaded online, thus putting a valuable dietary research tool at the fingertips of users. The expert information contained in FNDDS is indispensable for processing dietary intake data into forms suitable for analysis. FNDDS is used to process food intakes from the large-scale federal food consumption survey What We Eat in America (WWEIA), the dietary intake component of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), as well as other smaller-scale studies. An extensive database of food information (descriptions, nutrients, and food portion weights), the FNDDS is maintained and regularly updated to reflect the current state of the U.S. food market and to support processing of WWEIA. FNDDS contains information for several thousand foods, including many brand name products. Values for energy and 60 nutrients are included for each food, as well as weights for common food portions. Extensive documentation accompanies the database. The website provides a list of frequently asked questions, a bibliography of relevant research, and links to other sites with applications using the database. The availability and accessibility of the FNDDS is beneficial to Federal and State level policymakers; researchers in government, industry and academia; and students.

Technical Abstract: The USDA Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies (FNDDS) is the updated, redesigned, and renamed successor to the USDA Survey Nutrient Database and other technical support files used to code foods and calculate nutrient values for national food surveys. The current release of the FNDDS (release 1.0) was used to process food intakes from What We Eat in America/NHANES 2001-2002, and it can also be used in other dietary studies. FNDDS provides comprehensive information for use in coding dietary intakes and analyzing those intakes for nutrient content. It includes descriptions for 13,500 foods; over 30,000 weights for common food portions; and complete data for food energy and 60 nutrients/food components. The database consists of 10 separate but linked data files. Together, the files form a normalized, relational database system where data redundancy is minimized. The database is available for downloading in either Microsoft Access or ASCII format at http://www.barc.usda.gov/bhnrc/foodsurvey. The website includes detailed downloading instructions and extensive documentation describing the database. The documentation is also included as an integral part of the database download package.