The USDA Nutrient Data Laboratory's primary goal is to provide authoritative, reliable data on food composition through its ongoing maintenance of the USDA National Nutrient Database. It is one of the seven units in the Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center (BHNRC) of the Agricultural Research Service (ARS). The Laboratory and its staff of nutritionists, dietitians, food technologists, and computer specialists have been compiling data for more than a century. Their Web site provides access to Release 16 of the USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference. Users can search this database of 6,661 different foods online or download the data files and documentation for later use on their own computers.
The download version of the data requires about 90 megabytes of disk space on a hard drive. To run the application, a person must have Windows 98 or higher. A portable version of the software is also available for use on personal digital assistants (PDAs). Easy to follow installation and download instructions are available from the Laboratory's home page. I was able to download and begin using the application software within 5 min. Although the search process is fairly self‐explanatory, search instructions are provided, illustrating how to search a particular food, limit to a food group, select a particular food item, and modify the common measure to fit specific needs. For example, a search on “peanut butter” offers a drop‐down list of food groups that include baked products, breakfast cereals, legumes and legume products, and snacks. Selecting a food group further refines the search to specific food items. A display of all food items without limiting to a food group is also an option.
Users with fast Internet connections may choose to search the database online. When searching online, all food items are displayed without the option to limit to a particular food group. However, use of the database online does provide access to Nutrient Lists. These lists, provided in PDF format, are great reference tools for viewing reports on selected foods and nutrients. One can also find foods by cholesterol content, calories, dietary fibre, fats, and total sugar. These reports can be viewed alphabetically by food description or sorted in descending order by nutrient content. When reading these tables, one should note that the nutrient content is given for the common measure listed.
The searchable nutrient data contained within the USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference is the primary reason one would visit this Web site. Although the site is sparse and not very attractively designed, the nutrient database is a very useful and easy to use tool for locating detailed nutritional analyses of over 6,000 foods. This Web site does not offer dietary advice, but its FAQ section refers users to other federal government resources that offer a wider array of nutritional information and services. Other features of the site include links to articles written by NDL Staff, classic USDA food composition publications, and additional resource links on food composition and nutrition. Additional projects that have been developed from the USDA National Nutrient Database are accessible from the USDA Nutrient Laboratory Web site. These include special interest databases such as the Nutritive Value of Foods, USDA Database for the Flavonoid Content of Selected Foods, Selected Foods Containing Trans Fatty Acids, USDA‐Iowa State University Database on the Isoflavone Content of Foods, and a list of Keyfoods. The latter are “identified as those food components that contribute up to 75 per cent of any one nutrient and are used to set priorities for nutrient analyses under the National Food and Nutrient Analysis Program”.
This Web site serves a variety of users including the general public, nutritionists and academic and medical libraries. It is of interest to anyone who needs a detailed nutritional analysis of common foods. There are a few brand names listed for each food searched, but primarily the results are generic in nature. It is particularly useful to people needing specific nutrient information for special diets.
