Food Buying Guide (FBG) for Child Nutrition Programs: Food Yield Studies and Food Component Analyses

Goals / Objectives
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), Child Nutrition Programs (CNP), Nutrition, Education, Training and Technical Assistance Division (NETTA), has an Interagency Agreement with USDA, Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Food for Health of People and the Environment Laboratory (FHPEL) to conduct another phase of food yield studies. As part of this project, selected foods will be analyzed for food components that will be made available in the USDA FoodData Central (FDC). Overall, the project will examine commonly consumed, including indigenous, foods in the Child Nutrition Program for food yield and allow for selected samples for analyses of food components by the cooperator.

Project Methods
USDA FoodData Central (FDC) contains analytical and label data for thousands of foods and hundreds of food components; behind many of these data are yield determinations to assess amount of edible portions and potential loss of nutrients during preparation. Funding will support collection, processing, and analysis of weight differences between raw and prepared products for usual consumption. Product sampling through USDA vendors and through cooperating scientists will provide new data to be used in the Food Buying Guide for food service personnel serving thousands of children in the US public school system. Yield information will be included in the Food Buying Guide and selected samples will be available for laboratory analysis of key food components. Data on food components and yield may be included in FDC.