Dietary Intake Methodology II. USDA's Nutrient Data Base for Nationwide Dietary Intake Surveys

Abstract

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Nutrient Data Base for Nationwide Dietary Intake Surveys is specifically organized and maintained to analyze data from nationwide dietary surveys within the federal government's National Nutrition Monitoring System. These surveys include the Nationwide Food Consumption Survey and the Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals conducted by USDA, and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). Each public release of the data base covers one or more specific surveys. The data base contains data for energy and 28 components for over 5000 food items. Data are based on the latest information from USDAs National Nutrient Data Bank, the computer-based system used to update USDAs standard reference on food composition, Agriculture Handbook No. 8. An automated system is also used to update the survey nutrient data base with new information released from the Nutrient Data Bank. This system includes three supplementary data sets (primary nutrient data set, recipe file, and table of nutrient retention factors) and a computer program for calculating nutrient content of mixed food items based on nutrient content of their ingredients. Updates are performed at the beginning of new surveys to incorporate the most up-to-date nutrient values.

Dietary Boron Intake in the United States: CSFII 1994–1996

“…Data on dietary boron intake by human beings are fairly sparse. Boron is not included in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) nutrient databases (Perloff et al, 1990;USDA, 1999), and no comprehensive analytical database exists on the boron content of specific foods. Most previous estimates of average boron intake, summarized as ranging from 1 to 2 mg/d for adults (WHO, 1996), are based on a limited number of foods and population segments.…”

Considerations for selecting a dietary assessment system

“…For example, if an entry for a Swanson Chicken dinner does not include values for selenium or another value of interest, then the three main components (baked chicken, mashed potatoes and corn) could be substituted in appropriate amounts to match the carbohydrate, protein, and fat content of the packaged meal as found in the database. This technique is labor-intensive but has been used in some databases to fill in gaps in the data, such as is done for the NDS-R database and for earlier versions of the Nutrient Database for Nationwide Dietary Intake Surveys (Schakel et al, 1988;Perloff et al, 1990).…”

Developing a Nigerian-specific food and nutrient coding database

“…The nutrient retention factor methodology for recipe development used for creating the USDA recipes was used to create the Nigerian recipes (Perloff et al, 1990). A total of 422 user recipes were created.…”