Discontinued food codes resource for Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies 2019–2020

Abstract

The Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies (FNDDS) is USDA’s application database used for analysis of dietary intake from What We Eat in America (WWEIA), the dietary interview component of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Food codes are added and discontinued with each two-year release of FNDDS. A discontinued codes resource was first developed in 2012 to archive the food codes no longer used, provide the rationale for discontinuation and, where applicable, a link to a different FNDDS code. This research details the Discontinued Food Codes between FNDDS 2017–2018 and FNDDS 2019–2020, the fifth discontinued codes resource release. More than 1800 discontinued codes are included, which is comparable to the FNDDS 2017–2018 and double the FNDDS 2015–2016 releases. More than 75 % of these codes are consolidated into similar FNDDS food codes. This highlights the continued focus on incorporating generic food codes in FNDDS that reflect the foods Americans consume. A few highly reported food codes representing more than one product were expanded. This resource is beneficial to those who use FNDDS and researchers who conduct trend analysis using WWEIA, NHANES. The discontinued codes resource can be downloaded from the Food Surveys Research Group website at www.ars.usda.gov/nea/bhnrc/fsrg.