USDA FoodData Central (FDC)
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's integrated food composition database, used by researchers and consumer apps as a primary nutrient data source.
USDA FoodData Central (FDC) is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s integrated food and nutrient composition database, hosted at fdc.nal.usda.gov. It consolidates several older datasets (Standard Reference, Foundation Foods, FNDDS, Branded Foods) under one query surface.
We treat FDC as the primary nutrient reference for our weighed reference meals. When a calorie tracking app’s database disagrees with FDC for a basic food item, we treat FDC as ground truth unless the app cites a different validated source.
Why FDC matters for app accuracy
A calorie tracking app’s database is only as good as its underlying composition data. Apps that build on FDC (or FDC-derived datasets) inherit standardized, scientifically curated values for thousands of staple foods. Apps that rely entirely on crowdsourced user submissions inherit per-entry noise: portion ambiguity, wrong serving sizes, label-vs-actual discrepancies.
The Database criterion in our scoring rubric explicitly weights verification source: USDA / manufacturer label / verified user / unverified crowdsourced, in that order.