The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Code Selector¹ simplifies the process of extracting consumption information from What We Eat in America (WWEIA), the dietary component of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES). This tool allows filtering of NHANES data via direct selection from 8,000+ foods using a streamlined user-friendly interface. This Microsoft Excel-based tool decreases dependence on 3rd party software and allows for transparency and accessibility with the tool’s traceable decision logic.

This peer-reviewed tool enables users to select foods by selection from NHANES food categories or a keyword search. Users get a quick estimate of annual servings and serving size and can export a list of food codes to import into R or SAS for further analysis. Files are available for individual NHANES cycles or for all cycles (1999-2000 through 2013-14) combined. The combined file provides a snapshot of estimated annual servings of selected foods from the 1999-2013 cycles.

For more information about the Food Code Selector, please see the user guide, which also includes screenshots depicting the steps of identifying and exporting the food codes of interest.