Several USDA food composition databases, including the Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies (FNDDS), Standard Reference (SR) Legacy, and the USDA Branded Food Products Database, have transitioned to FoodData Central, a new and harmonized USDA food and nutrient data system. FoodData Central will also include expanded nutrient content information never before available, as well as links to diverse data sources that offer related agricultural, food, health, dietary supplement, and other information.

Food Intakes Converted to Retail Commodities Databases (FICRCD) provide data for foods consumed in the United States national dietary intake surveys at the retail commodity level. The survey foods are converted into 65 retail-level commodities. The commodities are grouped into eight major categories: Dairy Products; Fats and Oils; Fruits; Grains; Meat, Poultry, Fish and Eggs; Nuts; Caloric Sweeteners; and Vegetables, Dry Beans and Legumes.

USDA’s Food Patterns Equivalents Database (FPED) converts the foods and beverages in the Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies to the 37 USDA Food Patterns components. The FPED serves as a unique research tool to evaluate food and beverage intakes of Americans with respect to the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommendations.

The dataset, Survey-SR, provides the nutrient data for assessing dietary intakes from the national survey What We Eat In America, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (WWEIA, NHANES). Historically, USDA databases have been used for national nutrition monitoring (1). Currently, the Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies (FNDDS) (2), is used by Food Surveys Research Group, ARS, to process dietary intake data from WWEIA, NHANES. Nutrient values for FNDDS are based on Survey-SR. Survey-SR was referred to as the "Primary Data Set" in older publications. Early versions of the dataset were composed mainly of commodity-type items such as wheat flour, sugar, milk, etc. However, with increased consumption of commercial processed and restaurant foods and changes in how national nutrition monitoring data are used (1), many commercial processed and restaurant items have been added to Survey-SR.