USDA Food Composition Data

USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference Release 18

This page provides access to Release 18 of the USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference. You can either view the data here or download the data files and documentation in several different formats for use later on your computer. A search tool is also provided so you can look up the nutrient content of 7,146 different foods directly from this home page.

The suggested citation for this database is:

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. 2005. USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 18. Nutrient Data Laboratory Home Page, http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp

• Search the database online
• Download software to search the SR database.
• Display: 
  • Reports of all the foods in the database.  
  • Nutrient lists for selected foods and nutrients.  These lists are sorted either by food description or in descending order by nutrient content in terms of common household measures.
    
    You will need the Adobe^® Reader^® viewer to view these reports.  These reports can also be downloaded to your PC and/or printed on your printer.
     
• Download the database for use on your computer with various software packages.
• SR18 documentation describing all the files, their fields and relationships accompanies the database and can be viewed online.  The ASCII files can also be viewed online.

The USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 18 is being prepared for distribution on CD-ROM from the Government Printing Office.  Information will be posted here when available. 

Data on the fluoride content of 403 beverage and food items

Data on proanthocyanidins for 205 food items.

USDA Database for the Choline Content of Common Foods - 2004

Data on choline and betaine for 434 food items.

USDA Database for the Flavonoid Content of Selected Foods - 2003

Data on flavonoids for 225 food items.

Nutritive Value of Foods (HG-72)

Published in 2002, HG-72 contains data on over 1,274 foods expressed in terms of common household units.  

USDA Table of Nutrient Retention Factors, Release 5 (2003)

Release 5, of this data set, replaces the previous release, Release 4, issued in 1998. The data set contains the factors for calculating retention of 25 vitamins, minerals and alcohol during food preparation. The carotene retention factors which appeared in Release 4 are no longer being disseminated. Factors for the other 18 food components in Release 4 are unchanged. Factors for 7 new food components have been added to this release. The new components include folic acid, food folate, beta carotene, alpha carotene, beta cryptoxanthin, lycopene and lutein/zeaxanthin.

Documentation (32 Kb)

Data (465 Kb)

Table (1,103 Kb)

Articles by NDL Staff

Journal articles and presentations at scientific meetings by NDL staff.

USDA - Iowa State University Database on the Isoflavone Content of Foods - Release 1.3, 2002

Data on daidzein, genistein, glycitein and total isoflavone content for 128 foods.

USDA Classic Food Composition Publications

We've scanned some of our publications and made them available as PDF files on our home page.  Among them are Agriculture Handbook No. 74, Energy Value of Foods and Agriculture Handbook No. 102, Food Yields Summarized by Different Stages of Preparation.  You will need the Adobe Acrobat viewer to view these documents, which is available free of charge from Adobe.
 

Keyfoods

Key Foods are identified as those foods contributing up to 75% of any one nutrient. When total nutrient contributions of these Key Foods are aggregated, they account for approximately 90% of the nutrient content of the U.S. diet for nutrients examined. The Key Foods list is used to set priorities for NDL's nutrient analysis contracts.

Oxalic Acid Content of Selected Vegetables

This table was originally published in Agriculture Handbook No. 8-11, Vegetables and Vegetable Products, 1984.

A number of food components previously published in separate tables have been incorporated into the USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference.  When available, the original tables are available as Food Composition Classics. These include: 

• Vitamin D
• Individual carotenoids
• Vitamin K
• Total Sugars (Values for total sugars in Home Economics Research Report  No. 48 have been transferred to SR or superseded by new values.  Values for individual sugars, for the most part, have not been transferred to SR. 
• Trans fatty acids