Inspect the formulationUSDA FNDDS 2021–2023

The source ingredients behind thousands of USDA food records.

Food names alone can hide why two database entries differ. This encyclopedia reverses the view: start with one exact USDA source-input code, then inspect every qualifying survey-food record in Feast’s corpus that uses it.

Each page separates the source formulation from the food someone actually ate. It reports where the input appears, how much of the USDA formulation’s listed input weight it represents, and which complete nutrition profiles are available for comparison. It does not turn a source batch into a recipe or assign a dish’s nutrients to one ingredient.

Browse all source ingredients Read the nutrition methodology →

What “source ingredient” means here

A calculation input—not a claim about your plate.

USDA’s Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies links many survey-food records to one or more input-food rows. Those rows help document the standardized formulation used to calculate the survey record. The ingredient code and description on these pages are preserved from that source structure.

The listed gram weights belong to the source formulation. Cooking can add or remove water, a single code can appear more than once in one formulation, and a restaurant or home recipe can differ from the reference. A percentage in this encyclopedia always means share of listed input weight after repeated rows for the same code are combined. It is not a final plated proportion.

Why this collection stops at 623

Every indexable page must clear an evidence threshold.

A page count was not the selection target. The threshold was designed so each page can answer a real source-discovery question with multiple exact records.

Four-record default

A source ingredient ordinarily needs at least four distinct USDA survey-food records. Repeated rows inside one food do not inflate that count.

Narrow, useful exception

An exact three-record ingredient qualifies only when it has a sole-source reference record or spans more than one USDA food category.

Stricter special labels

Labels containing NFS, NS, or formulation language such as “as ingredient” require at least ten distinct records and an explanation of the USDA terminology.

Rare codes stay contextual

Lower-frequency codes remain visible inside the exact food profiles where USDA lists them. They do not become thin standalone pages.

Complete index

Find an exact USDA source-input description.

Search descriptions and ingredient codes. All 623 qualifying pages remain visible below and link to their complete record catalogs.

Search source ingredients

623 source ingredients shown

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A careful way to use the encyclopedia

Move from an ingredient clue to the closest complete food record.

Suppose a photographed meal appears to contain garlic, olive oil, rice, or soy sauce. An ingredient page can show which standardized food records list that same source input and how the complete records differ. The useful next step is not to copy the source batch weight. It is to open plausible food profiles, compare their exact descriptions and preparation language, and choose the record that best matches what is known about the meal.

The nutrient columns on a source-ingredient page belong to the linked whole-food records. They answer questions such as “How do the complete foods associated with this input differ per 100 grams?” They cannot tell how many calories, grams of protein, or milligrams of sodium the source ingredient contributed to any one formulation.

For a packaged food, a current Nutrition Facts label is usually more specific. For a home recipe, weighed ingredients and finished yield provide better evidence. For an unweighed restaurant meal, the result should remain visibly approximate even after a closer database record is found.