Our work for NDSR 2021 focused on making updates to a number of food product categories so that foods and nutrients in NDSR reflect today’s marketplace. We also added a number of foods to the database so that foods consumed by Americans are better represented. Below is a description of the key updates and additions you’ll find in NDSR 2021.

 

Margarines/Margarine-like products and Buttery Spreads In 2015 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) determined that partially hydrogenated oils (PHO) were no longer Generally Regarded As Safe (GRAS), with removal from products by January 1, 2020 mandated. As a result, major shifts in margarine products have occurred in recent years with products today free of industrially produced trans-fat and composed of different blends of oils than in the past.  Consequently, we’re pleased to report that margarines and spreads in NDSR 2021 reflect today’s marketplace. In addition to updating existing product lines (e.g. Parkay, Country Crock, Blue Bonnet) numerous new product lines were added including Earth Balance, Imperial, Olivio, and Pure Blends. Users will find more than 90 brand name and about 85 new generic margarine options in NDSR.

 

Ice Creams and Frozen Yogurt Brand name ice creams were updated and expanded, with NDSR 2021 including  close to 900 brand name ice creams.  New product lines for ice creams added include Halo Top, Hood, Izzy’s, Lactaid, Magnum, Mayfield, Prairie Farms, Tillamook, Turkey Hill, and Umpqua. Also updated were the generic sections for gelato, frozen custard, Dippin’ Dots, sherbet, and sorbet.   

 

With the frozen yogurt market shrinking, branded frozen yogurts have been removed from the database. NDSR 2021 still includes a variety of generic options which were updated to reflect the frozen yogurts that are currently on the market.

 

Granola Bars and Special Formulated Bars Close to 600 brand name bars are now included in NDSR. As part of the update work for this category we added a number of new product lines, including EPIC (meat-based bars), Gatorade, Met-Rx, Muscle Milk, Perfect, Power Crunch, Premier Protein, Protein One, Quest, RXBAR, Think!, and Zone. 

 

Restaurant and Commercial Entrée Updates The following fast food restaurants were updated: Dairy Queen, Domino’s, McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, and Panda Express. The following commercial entrée brands were updated: Kid Cuisine, Lean Cuisine, Pillsbury, and Smart Ones.

 

Addition of Foods Unique to Jamaican, Haitian, Nigerian, and Somali Cooking Traditions

 

To improve the representativeness of foods in NDSR, we have begun an initiative to add foods unique to Jamaican, Haitian, Nigerian, and Somali cooking traditions. Below are new foods added to NDSR 2021. In the coming years watch for the inclusion of a growing number of foods for these cuisines.

 

Curry with goat                                                                 Samosa (sambusa, sambosa, sambuza, or singara)            

Fufu made with cassava                                                Shaah adays (Somali spiced tea with milk)

Fufu made with plantain and cassava                      Shaah bigays (Somali spiced tea)

Jamaican coco bread                                                      Somali halwa (xalwa)

 

Some Additional New Foods Added

Bolt24 Antioxidant                                                          Fry sauce (e.g. mayo ketchup)

Bolt24 Energize                                                                 Mango – frozen and canned options

Coke with Coffee                                                             Pink beans

Coke with Coffee Zero Sugar                                       Sugar free strawberry syrup

Cranberry beans                                                               Yellow beans

PROGRAM IMPROVEMENTS

 

New – Menu Planner Features

Several new features were added to the Menu record type in NDSR 2020 to streamline use of NDSR for planning nutrient-controlled menus for feeding studies or planning menus in which there are nutrient targets.

 

These new features will allow the user to specify nutrients of interest for a menu, set nutrient targets with tolerance ranges for that menu, and then adjust food items and amounts to meet targets via a new interactive Planner tab window. A brief video providing an overview of the new Menu Planner Feature is available online.

 

More information can be found in Chapter 6 – Managing NDSR Menu Records in the NDSR 2020 User Manual.

 

FOOD AND NUTRIENT DATABASE UPDATES AND ADDITIONS

 

New – Variable ingredients for whole grain bread, pasta, and rice in mixed dishes and sandwiches

The new variable ingredients prompts users to select between white and whole wheat grain options for many common mixed dishes and sandwiches, allowing for more specificity. 

 

New Nutrients – Omega-6 Fatty Acids

To support research on Omega-6 fatty acids we added the major Omega-6 fatty acids found in food (PUFA 18:2 n-6; PUFA 18:3 n-6; PUFA 20:4 n-6) to NDSR 2020. In addition, total Omega-6 (sum of the individual Omega-6 fatty acids) was also added to the database and program.

 

The 6 existing fatty acids were renamed for clarity: 1) added ‘n-3’ to PUFA 20:5 [EPA], PUFA 22:5 [DPA], and PUFA 22:6 [DHA] descriptions, and 2) added ‘undifferentiated’ to PUFA 18:2, PUFA 18:3, and PUFA 20:4.

 

Food Updates

Many food categories were updated to better reflect the products available in the marketplace. Categories updated include:

• Frozen treats
• Lunch meats
• The following commercial entrée brands: Amy’s, Banquet, Healthy Choice, Hormel / Dinty Moore, Marie Callendar’s, Nestle Hot Pockets & Lean Pockets, and veggie burgers
• The following fast food restaurants: Chick-Fil-A, KFC, Papa John’s, Sonic, Taco Bell, and Wendy’s
• Ready-to-eat cereals: Kellogg’s, Post, and Quaker
• The following brands of meat substitutes were added or updated: Amy’s, Beyond Meat, Boca Burger, Gardein, Good Catch, Impossible Burger, Morningstar Farms, Quorn, Tofurky, and Worthington

A number of new foods were added including:

• Lasagna, from frozen options
• Veggie tots
• Bubble tea
• Southwest chicken salad
• Macaroni and cheese from microwave cup (e.g. Easy Mac)
• Spinach dip
• Hard seltzer (e.g. White Claw)
• Lentil flour
• Coke Energy
• Additional gluten-free pasta options (e.g. brown rice pasta, edamame, lentil) 

 

Changes to FDA Reference Amount Customarily Consumed (RACC) incorporated

Changes were made to some of the RACCs (serving sizes) that appear on Nutrition Facts panels as part of the new Nutrition Facts Panel rules implemented in 2020. Accordingly, these changes were made in NDSR. The FDA Serving Size column in output files 01 and 02 align with current RACCs.

 

DIETARY SUPPLEMENT DATABASE UPDATES

 

The DSAM database was updated with NHANES 2015-2016 Dietary Supplement Database and NCC maintained supplements.

PROGRAM IMPROVEMENTS

New – Food Serving Count System and Resulting HEI SAS Code Changes for NDSR 2019
 The NCC Food Group Serving Count System has been expanded to include six new food groups:

• Unsweetened Flavored Milk Beverage Powder with Non-fat Dry Milk
• Unsweetened Flavored Milk Beverage Powder without Non-fat Dry Milk
• Yogurt – Unsweetened Whole Milk
• Yogurt – Unsweetened Low Fat
• Yogurt – Unsweetened Fat Free
• Dairy-based Unsweetened Meal Replacement/Supplement

These new food groups will help clients who are interested in differentiating between flavored milk beverage powders, yogurts, and dairy-based meal replacements/supplements that are unsweetened vs artificially sweetened (previously unsweetened products were classified in the ‘artificially sweetened’ categories for these foods).

The addition of these food groups has implications for calculating Healthy Eating Index (HEI) 2015 scores, and thus NCC has made new SAS code available on the NCC website for calculating the HEI 2015. It is recommended that you use the new SAS code instead of the previous code if you are using data collected in or restored in NDSR 2019 or a subsequent version of the program.

 

New – Updated Daily Values (DV) Report

A new Nutrition Fact label is coming to the marketplace, with the new label already appearing on some food products in anticipation of the mandatory implementation date of January 1, 2020 (smaller manufacturers have until January 1, 2021 to comply).

The new label has a myriad of changes. To summarize, added sugars and vitamin D are required on the new label, and the Daily Value (DV) levels for many of the label nutrients have changed to reflect current recommended intake levels. For some nutrients the unit has changed. Most notably, vitamin D is in mcg on the new label instead of IU. Also, folic acid is in the unit of mcg Dietary Folate Equivalents (DFE) instead of mcg. To keep pace with this change, the Daily Values (DV) Report in NDSR 2019 aligns with the new label.

FOOD AND NUTRIENT DATABASE UPDATES AND ADDITIONS

 

New Nutrients – Lignans

NDSR now includes Total Lignans and four of its subtypes: Secoisolariciresinol, Matairesinol, Lariciresinol, and Pinoresinol. Lignans are a large group of polyphenols present in a wide variety of plant foods, including seeds (flax, pumpkin, sunflower, poppy, sesame), whole grains (rye, oats, barley), bran (wheat, oat, rye), beans, fruit (particularly berries), and vegetables.

 

Database Improvements in NDSR 2019

• The FNDDS 2015-2016 Database was used to update foods with nutrient and non-nutrient data.
• The Legacy Release of the USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference was used to update foods with nutrient and non-nutrient (e.g. density, food specific units, etc.) data.
• The yogurt category has been updated. This process included updating existing brands and adding several new brands that have emerged in the marketplace. Over 250 brand name yogurts are in NDSR 2019. While updating, we noticed a number of marketplace trends that make yogurts today different than those available the last time we updated this category. Most notably, the types of sweeteners used in yogurt have shifted. To summarize, acesulfame potassium/sucralose and Stevia/sugar blends appear to be more common, while aspartame is no longer used.
• Juice and juice drinks have been updated. This process included updating existing brands and adding several new brands that have emerged in the marketplace, with over 100 brand name juice and juice drinks included in NDSR 2019. While updating, we noticed that some manufacturers are reducing the sugar content of their juice drinks by using a combination of sugar and an artificial sweetener (e.g. Stevia or sucralose).
• New options for entering watermelon were added. The standard slice that has been in NDSR is a very large slice–a cylinder that is a full cross-section of a 7 1/2″ diameter watermelon which is equivalent to about 1.88 cups of watermelon. In NDSR 2019, this is now called the extra large slice. In addition to this pre-existing slice, there are now options for 1/8 of that cylinder as a small slice, 1/4 of that cylinder as a medium slice, and 1/2 of that cylinder as a large slice. Another new unit that is available is fruit only:  chunk, 2″ x 1″ x 1″ (without rind).  This can be used if a chunk of watermelon is reported without specified dimensions. For more information see the June 2019 News Bite.
• Many additional food categories were updated to better reflect the products available in the marketplace. These updates include:
  • The following commercial entrée brands: Chef Boyardee, Jenny Craig, Kashi, Michelina’s, and Smucker’s Uncrustables.
  • The following fast food restaurants: Arby’s, Boston Market, Burger King, Chipotle, Church’s Chicken, Jack In The Box, McDonald’s, and Subway.
  • Ready-to-eat cereals: Attune Foods, Barbara’s, Familia Swiss Muesli, Kashi, and Kretschmer.
  • Pancake and waffle mixes.

• New foods that have been added to this version of NDSR include:
  • Bone broth
  • Chili con queso with meat
  • Clarified butter (ghee)
  • Gluten free Bisquick
  • Gluten free pancake mix
  • Jelly sandwich
  • Sweet potato puffs
  • Taco Bell breakfast items