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Description:
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"The USDA has borne the fundamental responsibility of characterizing the nutrient content of the U.S. national food supply for 110 years."
"The USDA has borne the fundamental responsibility of characterizing the nutrient content of the U.S. national food supply for 110 years. The first food composition tables were published in 1891 by W.O. Atwater and C.D. Woods, who assayed the refuse, water, fat, protein, ash, and carbohydrate content of approximately 200 different foods.
"Today, the National Nutrient Data Bank is a repository of information for 100 nutrients for over 7,300 foods. Until 1992, most of this information was published in the form of Agriculture Handbook 8 (AH-8). However, AH-8 is no longer available in printed form. In the interest of timely releases, the information contained in AH-8 is now provided in our principle database--the USDA Nutrient Database for Standard Reference (SR)--on both our Web site and on CD-ROM.
"Food Composition Products developed by NDL include the USDA Nutrient Database for Standard Reference and the food composition database for the National Food Surveys. These databases are the foundation of virtually all public and commercial nutrient databases used in the United States and a number of foreign countries. In addition, the USDA data are used for special purpose applications by food companies, trade associations, and research institutions.
"SR and PDS food composition data are the numerical foundation of essentially all public and private work in the field of human nutrition. Within the Federal government, such efforts encompass metabolic and epidemiologic research, dietary treatment of disease, dietary guidance for healthy individuals, and planning and implementation of national nutrition policies. Nutrition monitoring activities and their results depend heavily on USDA's food composition data.
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