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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BHNRC) » Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center » Food Composition and Methods Development Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #172656
Title: PROGRESS IN DEVELOPMENT OF AN INTEGRATED DIETARY SUPPLEMENT INGREDIENT DATABASE AT THE NIH OFFICE OF DIETARY SUPPLEMENTS

Author
item DWYER, JOHANNA - NHANES, NIH, MARYLAND
item PICCIANO, MARY FRANCES - NHANES, NIH, MARYLAND
item BETZ, JOE - NHANES, NIH, MARYLAND
item SALDANHA, LEILA - NHANES, NIH, MARYLAND
item Holden, Joanne
item Andrews, Karen
item CUIWEI, ZHAO - 1235-45-00
item Harnly, James - Jim
item Wolf, Wayne
item PERRY, CHARLES - 1235-45-00

Submitted to: Journal of Food Composition and Analysis
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/8/2005
Publication Date: 1/1/2006
Citation: Dwyer, J., Picciano, M., Betz, J., Leila, S., Holden, J.M., Andrews, K.W., Cuiwei, Z., Harnly, J.M., Wolf, W.R., Perry, C. 2006. Progress in development of an integrated dietary supplement ingredient database at the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements. Journal of Food Composition and Analysis. 19:S108-S114.

Interpretive Summary: The Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) at the National Institutes of Health of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has contracted with the Nutrient Data Laboratory (NDL) at USDA to develop an analytically substantiated dietary supplement ingredient database. Scientists from NDL, ODS, the National Center for Health Statistics at HHS, and the Food Composition Laboratory and National Agricultural Statistic Service at USDA have met routinely to design and implement a research plan. Aspects of this plan are categorizing product types, identifying nutrients and other components of public health interest, prioritizing the order of investigation, developing methods and reference materials for quantifying the constituents, finding qualified laboratories to measure the constituents, developing appropriate sample handling procedures, and developing representative sampling plans. This database will be extremely beneficial to all areas of nutritional research and will influence public health policy.

Technical Abstract: Several activities of the Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) at the National Institutes of Health involve enhancement of dietary supplement databases. These include an initiative with USDA to develop an analytically substantiated dietary supplement ingredient database and collaboration with the National Center for Health Statistics to enhance the dietary supplement label database in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). The many challenges that must be dealt with in developing an analytically supported dietary supplement ingredient database include categorizing product types in the database, identifying nutrients and other components of public health interest in these products and prioritizing which will be entered in the database first. Additional tasks include developing methods and reference materials for quantifying the constituents, finding qualified laboratories to measure the constituents, developing appropriate sample handling procedures, and finally developing representative sampling plans. Developing the NHANES dietary supplement label database has other challenges such as collecting information on dietary supplement use from NHANES respondents, constant updating and refining of information obtained, developing default values that can be used if the respondent cannot supply the exact supplement or strength that was consumed, and developing a publicly available label database. Federal partners and the research community are assisting in making an analytically supported dietary supplement database a reality.