Summary
FoodData Central (FDC) is the USDA's integrated online database providing access to nutrient composition data for tens of thousands of foods available in the United States. It consolidates and supersedes earlier USDA nutrient databases, offering multiple data types including foundation foods, survey (FNDDS) foods, and branded food products with varying levels of analytical and label-derived data. FDC serves as a primary reference resource for nutrition research, dietary assessment, food policy, and epidemiological studies requiring standardised compositional data.
UK applicability
FoodData Central is a US-specific resource and does not directly reflect UK food composition; researchers and practitioners in the UK would typically refer to the McCance and Widdowson's Composition of Foods Integrated Dataset (CoFID), maintained by the UK government. However, FDC may be relevant for comparative nutrition research or studies involving US food products.
Key measures
Nutrient concentrations per 100g or per serving (macronutrients, vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, amino acids); food categorisation and source metadata
Outcomes reported
FoodData Central provides standardised nutrient composition data across multiple food categories, including branded foods, foundation foods, and survey foods. It reports concentrations of macronutrients, micronutrients, vitamins, minerals, and other bioactive compounds per 100g or per serving.
Topic tags
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