Skip to main content
ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BHNRC) » Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center » Food Surveys Research Group » Docs » FPED overview
Overview of Food Patterns Equivalents Database
  • What is
    FPED?
  • What does the
    FPED release include?
  • Applications
    of FPED
  • Fact sheets
  • Food Patterns Equivalents Database (FPED) converts the foods and beverages in the Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies (FNDDS) to the 37 USDA Food Patterns components. The FPED was formerly known as the MyPyramid Equivalents Database.
  • The FPED serves as a unique research tool to evaluate food and beverage intakes of Americans.
  • The Food Patterns components are measured as cup equivalents of Fruit, Vegetables, and Dairy; ounce equivalents of Grains and Protein Foods; teaspoon equivalents of Added Sugars; gram equivalents of Solid Fats and Oils; and the number of Alcoholic Drinks.
  • In addition to the SAS® datasets, the FPED release includes the Food Patterns Equivalents Ingredient Database (FPID) that includes the 37 USDA Food Patterns components per 100 grams of each unique ingredient used in the FNDDS.
  • Documentation
  • The amount of 37 components present per 100 grams of each of the FNDDS foods and beverages (FPED) and their unique ingredients (FPID), in MS Access®, MS Excel® and SAS®
  • The amount of 37 components in each food and beverage reported by each respondent on day 1 and day 2, and the total per day from What We Eat in America, (WWEIA), NHANES, and the respondents’ demographic information, in SAS®
  • Summarized tables containing estimates of mean intakes of the 37 components on day 1, by demographic subgroups
  • SAS® codes file to create mean intake estimates for select components
  • FPED has many important applications in Federal nutrition policies and education programs.
  • Can be used in:
    • Estimating Americans' dietary intakes of the 37 USDA Food Patterns components
    • Estimating cost of healthy foods and diets
  • Can be applied in nutrition monitoring and surveillance, epidemiological studies, risk analysis, and policy analysis