This edition contains the following articles:
Reminder: NDSR 2026 and 2026 NCC Food and Nutrient Database Files Now Available!
How to Enter Amounts for Frosted Cake in NDSR 2026
New Article Describes the Process of Adding Heme and Non-Heme Iron to NDSR and the NCC Food and Nutrient Database
NCC Community Forum to be Decommissioned in January 2027
Reminder: NDSR 2026 and 2026 NCC Food and Nutrient Database Files Now Available!
In case you missed the announcement in our last newsletter, we want you to know that we have released NDSR 2026 and the 2026 NCC Food and Nutrient Database files! The newest release includes updates to soups, chips and other snack foods, and Enfamil and store brand infant formulas. We have added over 500 new snack products and updated more than 400 snack products that were already present in the database. In addition to expanding our selection of snack foods, we have added highly requested items such as Biscoff cookies, matcha, macchiato, flax seed meal, and liquid aminos (both coconut and soy based).
In response to many requests, NDSR software users will find that we have added a new HEI output file to NDSR 2026. Output file 25 is a per-person HEI output file for which one HEI Total score and one set of component scores are calculated for the records with the same ID within a project.
If you would like to know more about what NDSR 2026 and the 2026 NCC Food and Nutrient Database files have to offer, we invite you to check out the full list on our website.
As a reminder, the latest version of NDSR is included as a component of your annual NDSR support. Any clients with up-to-date support at the time of the NDSR 2026 release were provided access to the updated software via direct email to the account’s Primary Contact (emails were sent 7/23/2026). Not sure of your support status or want to reinstate your support for another year? Send us an email at NDSRhelp@umn.edu to learn more.
For our NCC Food and Nutrient Database Licensing clients, those with an agreement that includes the 2026 files have been sent a Google Drive link to the files. If your data use agreement is no longer active or does not include the 2026 files and you would like to receive the files, or if you have any questions, please contact us at NCCDB-licensing@umn.edu.
How to Enter Amounts for Frosted Cake in NDSR 2026
Beginning with NDSR 2026, there is a change in how to enter amounts of frosted/glazed cake into the program compared to NDSR 2025 and previous versions.
When entering frosted/glazed cake by weight into NDSR 2026, enter the total weight of the frosted/glazed cake into the Food Detail window. You no longer need to use the adjustment factor provided in the Data Entry Rules (Appendix 15 of the NDSR User Manual). When entering frosted/glazed cake using food shape dimensions, enter the total thickness of the cake and the frosting for the height.
The instructions above may seem logical, or match how you have always entered cake into the program. Those who have attended NDSR Training or carefully read the NDSR User Manual know that in NDSR 2025 and prior versions, the amount of frosted cake should be entered as just the amount of the cake itself, without the frosting. NDSR would add on a default amount of frosting in proportion to the amount of cake entered. Therefore, especially when entering cake by weight, it was important to enter the amount of cake only, to avoid accidental entry of a larger piece of cake with even more frosting added. We hope that the change in NDSR 2026 (which will continue in future versions of the program) will make entry of cake more straightforward.
As you could in previous versions, you can still enter unfrosted cake into NDSR 2026 with an addition of frosting if that is easier for a participant to estimate or better for your study-specific protocols.
If you have any questions, please contact User Support at NDSRhelp@umn.edu, and we will be happy to help.
New Article Describes the Process of Adding Heme and Non-Heme Iron to NDSR and the NCC Food and Nutrient Database
After adding Heme and Non-Heme Iron to NDSR 2025 and the NCC Food and Nutrient Database, NCC’s Database Scientists Bhaskarani Jasthi, PhD, RD and Janet Pettit, along with NCC’s Director, Dr. Lisa Harnack, published an article describing the methodology, data sources, and procedures used. You can find it in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics with this link. NCC is grateful to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association for the funding that supported this work.
NCC Community Forum to be Decommissioned in January 2027
NCC launched a Community Forum on LinkedIn in 2024 with the aim of connecting NDSR users and NCC Food and Nutrient Database clients with one another. The forum has seen very low activity, and responses to our most recent client survey indicated that engagement was unlikely to increase. Therefore, we have made the decision to decommission the NCC forum on LinkedIn. After January 14, 2027, it will no longer be accessible.
