Life & Health Sciences
Nutrition & Food Science Research: Data, Standards and Funders
Nutrition and food science studies what people eat, how food is made and measured, and how diet relates to health. Research in the field runs on shared infrastructure rather than on any one method. Food composition databases such as USDA FoodData Central, and the FAO INFOODS network behind national tables, supply the values that turn reported food intake into nutrient intake. National surveys such as NHANES combine questionnaires, health exams and laboratory tests, and WHO and FAO publish global nutrition data tools.
Reference values and guidance frame many studies. The Dietary Reference Intakes set by the National Academies, EFSA dietary reference values, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and Codex Alimentarius texts are the documents that protocols, grant applications and regulatory submissions cite.
Work is published in journals from the American Society for Nutrition and The Nutrition Society, among others, and organised through societies with research interest sections or divisions, including the Institute of Food Technologists. Funding comes from programmes such as USDA NIFA Agriculture and Food Research Initiative, whose priorities include food safety, nutrition and health, and from the NIDDK Nutrition Obesity Research Centers, which provide shared resources to funded institutions.
This page covers the discipline as a whole. Its specialisations cover dietary assessment, energy metabolism, micronutrients, maternal and child nutrition, nutrigenomics, the gut microbiome, bioactives and supplements, food chemistry, food microbiology, food toxicology, food security, and sustainable food systems. Each has its own page with the databases, methods and funders specific to that area.
New to the field? What is Nutrition & Food Science? →
Reviewed 5 November 2026 by CASRAI Editorial Board
- ASN Research Interest Sections(read 5 November 2026)
- USDA FoodData Central(read 5 November 2026)
- NHANES overview(read 5 November 2026)
- Dietary Guidelines for Americans(read 5 November 2026)
- EFSA nutrition(read 5 November 2026)
- WHO nutrition(read 5 November 2026)
- IFT divisions(read 5 November 2026)
- Codex Alimentarius(read 5 November 2026)
- NIFA AFRI(read 5 November 2026)
- NIDDK NORCs(read 5 November 2026)
- FAO nutrition(read 5 November 2026)
- FAO INFOODS(read 5 November 2026)
- EuroFIR(read 5 November 2026)
- NHANES about(read 5 November 2026)
- medRxiv(read 5 November 2026)
- Dietary Reference Intake (Wikipedia)(read 5 November 2026)
- The Nutrition Society (Wikipedia)(read 5 November 2026)
- AJCN (Wikipedia)(read 5 November 2026)
- J Nutr (Wikipedia)(read 5 November 2026)
- BJN (Wikipedia)(read 5 November 2026)
Field at a glance
Journals
- The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
- Monthly journal of the American Society for Nutrition, founded 1952 as the Journal of Clinical Nutrition; focuses on clinical nutrition.Website ↗
- The Journal of Nutrition
- American Society for Nutrition journal founded 1928; experimental research on human, animal and cellular and molecular nutrition.Website ↗
- Advances in Nutrition
- American Society for Nutrition review journal founded 2010, covering recent progress in nutrition science and related biomedical fields.Website ↗
- British Journal of Nutrition
- Published by Cambridge University Press for The Nutrition Society since 1947; covers animal and human nutrition research.Website ↗
Societies
- American Society for Nutrition: Research Interest Sections
- Member groups, each focused on an area such as obesity, diet and cancer or sports nutrition, running symposia and webinars.Website ↗ · Our guide →
- The Nutrition Society
- British learned society founded in 1941; publishes six journals including Public Health Nutrition and Journal of Nutritional Science.Website ↗
- Institute of Food Technologists divisions
- IFT has 25 discipline-specific divisions, among them Food Microbiology, Food Packaging, Protein and Sensory and Consumer Sciences.Website ↗ · Our guide →
Funders and programmes
- USDA NIFA Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI)
- Competitive grants programme with six priority areas, one of them food safety, nutrition, and health.Website ↗
- NIDDK Nutrition Obesity Research Centers (NORCs)
- NIDDK-funded centres at 11 institutions that provide shared research resources for nutrition and obesity research.Website ↗
- EFSA nutrition work
- EFSA panel on nutrition, novel foods and food allergens advises on dietary reference values, novel foods and health-claim substantiation.Website ↗
- WHO nutrition programme
- Covers undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, obesity and diet-related disease, with named tools such as eLENA and the Global Nutrition Monitoring Framework.Website ↗
Archives, facilities and data
- USDA FoodData Central
- USDA food composition source with Foundation Foods, SR Legacy, Survey Foods (FNDDS), Experimental Foods and Branded Foods data types.Website ↗
- NHANES
- CDC NCHS survey that includes health exams and laboratory tests and collects biospecimens and questionnaire data; about 5,000 participants a year.Website ↗
- FAO/INFOODS
- Volunteer global network of food composition experts, organised in regional data centres and coordinated through FAO.Website ↗
- EuroFIR
- Non-profit association founded in 2009 that brings European food composition databases into one access point; tools include FoodEXplorer and eBASIS.Website ↗
- FAO nutrition and GIFT
- FAO nutrition work includes diet assessment and food consumption indicators, and the FAO/WHO GIFT individual food consumption data tool.Website ↗
Standards and formats
- Dietary Reference Intakes
- US and Canadian reference values (EAR, RDA, AI, UL) published by the National Academy of Medicine; introduced in 1997.Website ↗
- Dietary Guidelines for Americans
- Federal dietary guidance issued every five years since 1980, with a page of previous editions.Website ↗
- Codex Alimentarius
- FAO and WHO food standards programme publishing standards, codes of practice and guidelines.Website ↗
Preprints and indexes
- medRxiv
- Preprint server for health and medicine fields including epidemiology, operated by openRxiv.Website ↗
13 pages across 5 topic areas
Laboratory Operations & Safety
- ASA24: The NCI Automated Self-Administered 24-Hour Dietary Assessment Tool
ASA24 is NCI's free web-based tool for automated, self-administered 24-hour dietary recalls and food records, with versions, ages and a study fit chec…
- DXA Body Composition: What It Measures and Reporting Basics
How DXA body composition works, the ISCD required and optional report parameters, and the factors that affect fat and lean mass estimates.…
- Respiratory Quotient: Definition, Formulas, and RER
The respiratory quotient (RQ) measures cellular metabolic substrate use via VCO2 to VO2. Understand RQ vs RER and indirect calorimetry calculations.…
- Sustainable Food: FAO and WHO Definitions Compared
What sustainable food means under FAO and WHO: two definitions compared and the 16 principles grouped as a health, environment and culture checklist.…
- Water Activity Testing: Methods, Formula, and Buying Guide
What water activity (aw) measures, the formula, standard test methods, FDA compliance context, and a procurement buying guide for water activity testi…
Research Data Management
- All of Us Researcher Workbench: How Tiered Access Works
How NIH's All of Us Research Program governs researcher access to its precision-medicine dataset through the Registered and Controlled Tiers, the inst…
- Metabolomics Workbench: The NIH-Funded National Metabolomics Data Repository
What Metabolomics Workbench is, who funds and operates it, what data it accepts, its mwTab submission requirements, its Study/Analysis ID system, and…
- Submitting Sequence Data to NCBI SRA
A step-by-step guide to depositing sequencing reads in NCBI SRA: how BioProject, BioSample, and SRA run accessions relate, when to route data to dbGaP…
Research Methods & Statistics
- Healthy Eating Index (HEI): Components, Scoring and Methods
The Healthy Eating Index explained: HEI-2020's 13 components with point standards, a worked scoring example and NCI's four scoring methods.…
- What Is Food Science? Research Areas, Funding, and Career Paths
Food science applies chemistry, microbiology, and engineering to how food is made, processed, and kept safe. Covers sub-disciplines, funding (USDA NIF…
- What Is Nutrition Science? Research Areas, Funding, and Career Paths
Nutrition science studies how food and nutrients affect metabolism, growth and disease. This guide covers its subfields, who funds nutrition research,…
Grants Management & Research Funding
- The Obesity Society: Grants, Awards & Programs
Guide to The Obesity Society research programs: Early Career Research Grants, eligibility, award mechanisms, review criteria, and application complian…
Laboratory Equipment & Instrumentation
- Metabolomics Mass Spectrometry: Platform Choice and QC Sample Design
A decision guide to metabolomics mass spectrometry: targeted vs untargeted acquisition, LC-MS vs GC-MS platform choice by metabolite class, and the po…
