1. Which file contains total nutrient content of a Menu Record (e.g., mg of calcium from all foods in the menu)?
ANSWER: FILE 06
2. Which file contains Healthy Eating Index (HEI) total and index component scores for a Menu Record?
ANSWER: FILE 24
3. Which file contains total MyPlate Food Group servings in a Menu Record (e.g., dairy servings in cup equivalents from all foods in the menu)?
ANSWER: FILE 24 for Total Fruit, Whole Fruit, Total Vegetables, Greens and Beans, Dairy, Total Protein Foods, Seafood and Plant Proteins, Whole Grains, and Refined Grains. File 06 also includes Total Grains along with Whole Grains and Refined Grains.
4. Which file contains total NCC food group serving counts in a Menu Record (e.g., Sweetened Soft Drinks servings from all foods in the menu)
ANSWER: FILE 09
5. Should I use the MyPlate Food Group Servings or the NCC Food Serving Counts for doing food group analysis of Menu Records?
ANSWER: This will depend on the food groups of interest for your research question:
If MyPlate food groups and subgroups are of interest, use MyPlate Food Group Servings available in the HEI output (files 22 and 23) and Total Daily Nutrient Intake (File 04) files . These files include the following MyPlate food groups and subgroups:
- Total Fruit servings in cup equivalents
- Whole Fruit servings in cup equivalents
- Total Vegetable servings in cup equivalents
- Greens and Beans servings in cup equivalents
- Dairy servings in cup equivalents
- Total Protein Food servings in ounce equivalents
- Seafood and Plant Protein servings in ounce equivalents
- Whole Grain servings in ounce equivalents
- Refined Grain servings in ounce equivalents
- Total Grain servings in ounce equivalents
Total MyPlate food group servings of a Menu Record are provided in File 24. MyPlate food group servings per meal are provided in File 22. Additionally, Total Grain servings in ounce equivalents, Whole Grain servings in ounce equivalents, and Refined Grain servings in ounce equivalents are available at the menu, meal, and food levels in output files 06 and 01-03.
The NCC Food Group Serving Count System output files may be useful for examining food groups not included in MyPlate. For example, counting servings of sugar sweetened beverages, alcoholic beverages, coffee, tea, sweet baked goods, yogurt, cheese, etc. is possible using the NCC Food Serving Counts available in these output files. Note that with the NCC Food Serving Count System foods in NDSR are assigned values for 174 subgroups that fit within 9 major food categories (see NDSR User Manual, Appendix 10, Food Grouping). It is specifically designed to offer a high level of flexibility to address multiple research investigations related to food group and dietary pattern analysis. Total Food Serving counts for a Menu Record are provided in File 11. NCC Food Serving Counts per food and per meal are provided in Files 07and 08 respectively.
6. Which file contains information about meal name and mealtimes in a Menu Record?
ANSWER: FILE 03
7. How are the Meal (file 03), Food (file 02), and Component Ingredient (file 01) files linked?
ANSWER: This video explains the linkages using the file ID numbers.
8. Why are some foods in the Food file (file 02) repeated in the Component/Ingredient file (file 01) and others not?
ANSWER: This video explains why some foods may be the same in these two files while others are not.
9. In what Menu Record Output File can I find percent Daily Values?
ANSWER: Percent Daily Values are not available in NDSR Output files. They are available in the Daily Values (DV) Report which can be saved as a pdf document or printed. See Chapter 10, NDSR Reports in the NDSR User Manual for information on how to select and save and print the Daily Values Report.
10. How can I tell what version of NDSR was used to enter Menu Records and to generate output files for the records?
ANSWER: FILE 05 contains the following variables for Menu Records: 1) data collected in NDSR software version and 2) data generated in NDSR software version.
*Additional NDSR Output File and Data Analysis FAQs can be found here.