The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Food Disaggregation Database (FDA-FDD): a new tool for U.S. dietary exposure assessment

Abstract

Dietary exposure to a food chemical (e.g. contaminant, nutrient, or other natural constituent) is a function of the concentration of the chemical in foods and the quantity of each food consumed. Exposures to food chemicals can be estimated using intake data from What We Eat in America (WWEIA), the food consumption survey portion of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). To estimate exposures to chemicals in foods consumed by NHANES/WWEIA respondents, the consumption data must be mapped to chemical concentration data on the same or similar foods. However, food chemical data are generally not available on all the foods and food mixtures that are reported in NHANES/WWEIA. To address this, we developed the FDA Food Disaggregation Database (FDA-FDD), a ‘recipe’ database with estimates of ingredient percentages. FDA-FDD allows mapping to food chemical data based on ingredients in NHANES/WWEIA foods rather than on food mixtures, resulting in more accurate exposure estimates. Using FDA-FDD, FDA mapped over 11,000 NHANES/WWEIA foods to FDA’s Total Diet Study (TDS) foods. FDA-FDD is available as part of a publicly available interactive application that also allows access to the TDS mapping.