USDA Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies: Released on the web

The USDA Survey Nutrient Database and other technical files used to code foods and calculate nutrient values for national food consumption surveys were updated, redesigned, and renamed the USDA Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies (FNDDS). This new database is now available over the internet from the Food Surveys Research Group (FSRG): Code numbers, food descriptions and food portion weights were added to accommodate the latest release of What We Eat in America, the dietary component of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Food weights and portions were updated to reflect current fast food and other individually sized products. Nutrients were added and all nutrient values were updated based on the latest release of the USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference. The FNDDS can be downloaded from the FSRG website (http://www.ars.usda.gov/ba/bhnrc/fsrg) in both ASCII and Microsoft Access((R)) formats. It contains descriptions for 13,500 foods, complete data for energy and 62 other nutrients, and over 30,000 weights for common food portions. The database may be used in conjunction with dietary data from What We Eat in America/NHANES, or applied to other dietary studies to provide comparability with national data. Published by Elsevier Inc.