Who We Are
Mission
The Nutrition Coordinating Center’s mission is to support nutrition research and health promotion by providing state-of-the-art software and databases for nutrition assessment.
Primary Activities
NCC developed and supports Nutrition Data System for Research (NDSR), a dietary analysis software application widely used for the collection and analyses of 24-hour dietary recalls and the analysis of food records, menus, and recipes. Researchers at hundreds of institutions rely on NDSR (Client List) for an array of nutrition-related studies (Publications).
The NCC Food and Nutrient Database was developed and is maintained by NCC. The Database is well known for its comprehensiveness with respect to the number of foods in it and the nutrients for which composition information is available. Other unique aspects of it include high levels of completeness of nutrient values and ongoing additions and updates to foods and nutrients in it.
An array of services is available through NCC to support the needs of researchers. The NCC User Support group provides telephone and email support for every aspect of NDSR and all NDSR license options. A comprehensive training and certification program for instructing researchers and their staff on use of NDSR is available. NCC also offers 24-hour dietary recall collection and food record analysis services. Many prominent studies have relied on NCC services (Study List).
Organization and Funding
NCC is located in the Division of Epidemiology & Community Health in the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota. Nutrition Coordinating Center activities are supported through licensing of the NDSR software to researchers and licensing of NCC Food and Nutrient database files to the scientific community and app developers for a variety of purposes, including use for nutrition related apps and websites.
In addition, NCC receives revenue for providing nutrient analysis and data collection support services, including the collection of dietary recalls, food record analysis, and menu analysis, to research studies led by other investigators.
Publications directly related to the NCC Food and Nutrient Database are funded through Internal University of Minnesota Nutrition Coordinating Center funds, unless otherwise stated in the publication acknowledgements.
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Meet the NCC Team
Small but Mighty
Many of the largest technology companies created their first successful products with teams of fewer than 10 people. The same is true for the Nutrition Coordinating Center. We have a small but mighty staff that maintains and updates the NDSR software and NCC Food and Nutrient database. Our team consists of 4 database scientists, 1 programmer, and 2 specialists providing user support and training to NDSR clients. Most members of the team wear multiple hats and every individual plays an important role in accomplishing NCC’s mission. NCC’s work is led by a small leadership team, including a part-time Director, a part-time Associate Director, and a Director of Operations.
In addition, we have a group of part-time and hourly employees, including undergraduate and graduate students, that collects and processes dietary recalls and food records for researchers.
NCC Director, Professor and Interim Division Head, Division of Epidemiology & Community Health
Dr. Harnack joined NCC as Assistant Director in 1997 and became Director in 2007. In her leadership role at NCC, she has led numerous improvements to NDSR, such as the addition of a dietary supplement assessment module (work funded by the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements), the addition of a menu planner feature for use in designing menus for feeding studies (in response to the needs of metabolic kitchens at CTSIs), and the creation of Healthy Eating Index reports and output files (in response to requests from NDSR users). Dr. Harnack has also overseen the addition of over 70 additional nutrients and other food components to the NCC Food and Nutrient Database, with the aim of ensuring the nutrients available in the database meet emerging and ongoing research and public health nutrition needs.
612.626.9398
harna001@umn.edu
NCC Associate Director and Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Community Health
Dr. Johnson joined the Nutrition Coordinating Center as Associate Director in 2020. She is a nutrition scientist and registered dietitian with specific expertise in dietary data analysis and microbiome studies. Dr. Johnson is broadly interested in dietary assessment and innovative dietary assessment technologies. She has led dietary intervention studies and has worked with nutritional and dietary data from cross-sectional studies and large citizen science projects.
612.624.8210
abbyj@umn.edu
Julia Lorenzana Peasley, MPH
Director of Operations
Julia started working at NCC as a dietary interviewer in 2011. She became the Research Services Lead in 2013 and Manager of Research Services in 2018. In 2023, Julia became Director of Operations and is now responsible for managing staff and activities across the various workgroups at NCC, including Database, Information Technology, Research Services, and User Support. She also oversees the NDSR Training program and co-leads trainings.
612.624.4592
peas0027@umn.edu
Janet Pettit
Food and Nutrient Database Manager
Janet started working at NCC in 1985. She became the Database Manager in 1995. As Database Manager, she oversees the ongoing maintenance and enhancements to the NCC Food and Nutrient Database, including managing a team of database scientists. She is also involved with the development and implementation of enhancements to NCC‘s software applications (e.g. FoodCalP, NDSM maintenance, and NDSR) and other ad-hoc NCC projects.
Bhas Jasthi, PhD, RD, LD
Food and Nutrient Database Scientist
Bhas received her PhD in Food Science and Nutrition. She has been with NCC since 2007. Bhas is primarily responsible for adding and updating nutrient values in the NCC Food and Nutrient Database. Nutrients that Bhas has added to the database over the years include vitamins D2 and D3, conjugated linoleic acid, gluten and lignans, to name a few.
Kris Schmitz
Food and Nutrient Database Scientist
Kris began working at NCC in 1986 as a food coder while she was attending the University of Minnesota. For over 30 years, she has worked on updating NCC’s Food and Nutrient database, particularly fast foods and commercial entrees. Kris also resolves new foods requests received from NDSR clients.
Jenny Stevenson
Food and Nutrient Database Scientist
Jenny started at NCC in 1992. She has worked on updating the NCC Food and Nutrient Database with information from various sources (e.g. manufacturers, USDA, FNDDS). Currently, Jenny also provides User Support to current and potential NDSR clients, supports licensing of the NCC Food and Nutrient Database, and co-leads NDSR training workshops.
Gordon Weil, MS
Information Technology Manager
Gordon has worked at NCC since 1996. As IT Manager, he is responsible for development and oversight of all of NCC’s software programs. He is currently the primary software developer for NDSR and FoodCalP and was one of the original developers for the internal NCC database maintenance program. Gordon also provides technical support to our NDSR users and NCC database clients.
Huong Duong
User Support Specialist
Huong began working at NCC in 1989 as an office assistant. Today Huong is the primary person responsible for answering the main NCC phone line and NDSRhelp email. She interacts with potential clients regarding their questions about licensing the NDSR program and provides wide range of technical support to current clients. In addition, Huong prepares all of the NDSR license and support agreements and manages billing for NDSR and NCC database licensing.
Katelin Raimondi, MS, RD
Research Services Associate
Katelin joined NCC in 2022. She has her MS in Dietetics and Nutrition and is a Registered Dietitian. She supports multiple service areas, including Research Services, User Support, and Training. She also contributes to our NDSR development and testing team.
History
NCC Food Coding Systems and Software
NCC was initiated in 1974 by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) to support the food coding and nutrient analysis needs of two historically significant, national collaborative research programs – the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial (MRFIT) and the Lipid Research Clinics (LRC). For these studies, a mainframe computer-based food coding and nutrient analysis system was created by NCC in collaboration with NHLBI and outside experts in nutrition, statistics, computer science and education. This system was designed for in-house use, with NCC staff responsible for entering food codes and amounts for computerized calculation of nutrient intake of study participants. By 1977 NCC services were made available to other researchers studying the impact of diet and nutrition on various health conditions including cardiovascular disease, cancer, hypertension, obesity, diabetes, age-related eye disease, and acquired immune deficiency syndrome.
To streamline and better standardize dietary intake information collection and coding, NCC began work developing a Dietary Data Collection (DDC) microcomputer system for 24-hour dietary recall collection. The system operated interactively, soliciting all necessary information on menu selection screens to ensure user entry of complete food descriptions and amount information. Descriptive data were then automatically converted to food codes and gram weights for subsequent calculation of nutrient content. DDC was used for the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III), which was carried out between 1988-1994. The DDC project led to NCC creating and releasing the Nutrient Calculation System (NCS) in 1988 followed by Nutrition Data System (NDS) in 1989. NDS was a Microsoft Disc Operating System (MSDOS)-based software program designed to provide a standardized interview and direct data entry for collection of 24-hour dietary recalls or entry of paper and pencil food records. The software was developed for distribution to researchers for use on their personal computers.
In the mid-1990’s NCC embarked on developing a Microsoft Windows-based version of NDS so the program would be compatible with and designed to take advantage of the many benefits of this operating system. In 1998, a Windows-based version of the program was released, with a modified name- Nutrition Data System for Research (NDSR). .
Since the release of NDSR, NCC has worked to keep the program up to date with computer hardware and software advances, dietary assessment methods, and dietary intake assessment methodological improvements. Today NDSR is designed for the collection and coding of 24-hour dietary recalls and the analysis of food records, menus, and recipes.
NCC Food and Nutrient Database
Throughout NCC’s history, NCC has maintained a food and nutrient database for use in conjunction with the food coding systems and software developed by the Center. Over time the database has grown in size and sophistication. Key features of the NCC Food and Nutrient Database include:
- Deeply relational design
- More foods and nutrients than any other research quality food and nutrient database
- Use of core foods as the building blocks for creation of nutrient composition values for multi-ingredient foods
- Complete nutrient profile for all foods in the database achieved through standardized imputing methods where analyzed values are unavailable
- Reliable sources of nutrient composition values, such as USDA, other food and nutrient databases and articles in scientific journals containing values for food products obtained using appropriate analytic methodologies
- Time-related feature to permit comparability of dietary data over time
Research Services
Since the early days of NCC’s history, its Research Services group has offered services such as 24-hour dietary recall collection over the telephone, entry of food records in NDSR, dietary data collection protocol development, and quality assurance of dietary data collected using NDSR.
For a more complete history of NCC, go here.
Publications
Papers Published by NDSR Users
NDSR is used by researchers for an array of nutrition-related studies. Papers published in which the software is cited as having been used illustrate the widespread and varied application of this research tool.
Publications Citing NDSR
NCC Publications
A number of papers have been published describing NDSR and methods related to the development and maintenance of the NCC Food and Nutrient Database. References for these papers are provided in chronological order with links to abstracts and full texts provided where possible.
NCC Publications (PDF)