Consumer Food Data System (CFDS)
The USDA, Economic Research Service’s (ERS) vision for the Consumer Food Data System (CFDS) is to be a comprehensive, integrated data system. CFDS is designed to deliver relevant, accurate, and credible evidence that informs the USDA, Congress, and the public about the food sector—from farmgate to fork—and about key national issues. These issues include obesity, diet quality, food and nutrition insecurity, and nutrition assistance programs. The following diagram shows categories and examples of data, statistics, and value-added data products included in the CFDS.
More information about the data included in the Consumer Food Data System and their sources is available below.
The CFDS is composed of data, statistics, and value-added data products that ERS integrates from government, commercial, and academic sources. Administrative data include data from State agencies that administer USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and USDA’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).
ERS uses these data for policy-relevant analyses that build an evidence-based portfolio of research. Reports by ERS and extramural researchers use the CFDS data and statistics to provide information and analyses on food markets, food choices and nutrition, food safety, food security, and USDA’s food and nutrition assistance programs. Data and statistics from the CFDS are available to users through reports, data tools, maps, and micro-level data sets—many of which are readily accessed on the ERS website. State-of-the-art interactive tools enable users to tailor data and maps to suit their needs. Confidential or restricted-use data are accessible to extramural researchers for approved projects in a secure data environment.
The strategic goals of the CFDS are to:
- acquire existing administrative or survey data from Federal agencies and proprietary data from commercial sources;
- invest in continuous examination and documentation of data quality and improvement of data access;
- integrate or link data sources and create value-added data products to gain results that could not be obtained using either source alone; and
- conduct research on issues of interest to policy officials and program managers, improving effectiveness, efficiency, and accountability.
ERS asked the Committee on National Statistics (CNSTAT) of the National Academies of Sciences Engineering, and Medicine to convene an expert panel to provide guidance to ERS on further development of the CFDS. The panel’s 2020 report, A Consumer Food Data System for 2030 and Beyond, explores the quality of data collected, the data collection process, and the kinds of data that may be most valuable to researchers, policy makers, and program administrators going forward. The panel’s recommendations serve as a guide to ERS.
The CFDS supports the 10-year Federal Data Strategy and its goal of leveraging data as a strategic asset to grow the economy, increase the effectiveness of the Federal Government, facilitate oversight, and promote transparency.
CFDS data sources have different levels of accessibility, depending in part on whether the source consists of aggregate statistics or confidential micro-level data. Confidential data are accessible only for qualified researchers with approved projects. Contact Alisha Coleman-Jensen for details.
CFDS Data Assets and Data Products
- ERS data collection
- ERS survey supplements and items added to surveys
- Administrative data
- Commercial data
- Multiple-source data and data products
ERS data collection
National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey (FoodAPS)
- Source: USDA, ERS
- Description: USDA’s National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey includes nationally representative data from nearly 5,000 households, including those participating in SNAP.
ERS survey supplements and items added to surveys
- Source: Current Population Survey; National Health Interview Survey; Early Childhood Longitudinal Study; Panel Study of Income Dynamics; Household Pulse Survey; National Survey of Children’s Health; and others
- Description: Food security means access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life. ERS presents trends, statistics, and charts related to food security—along with definitions, background, key publications, and resources.
Flexible Consumer Behavior Survey (FCBS)
- Source: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (National Center for Health Statistics)
- Description: The FCBS provides data on the use of nutrition information on restaurant menus and food packages, food-away-from-home meal frequency, consumption of convenience foods, self-assessed diet quality, and awareness of the MyPlate eating plan.
- Source: American Time Use Survey (U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)
- Description: The Eating and Health Module provides data to analyze the relationships among time-use patterns and eating patterns, nutrition, and obesity; food and nutrition assistance programs; and grocery shopping and meal preparation.
Administrative data
SNAP micro-level administrative data
- Source: Participating State SNAP agencies, for certain years
- Description: ERS and the Standard Application Process (SAP) data inventory each provide State-by-State information on what variables are contained in a State’s SNAP micro-level administrative data. A request for access to these restricted-use data is submitted through the SAP.
WIC micro-level administrative data
- Source: Participating State WIC agencies, for certain years
- Description: ERS and the Standard Application Process (SAP) data inventory each provide State-by-State information on what variables are contained in a State’s WIC micro-level administrative data. A request for access to these restricted-use data is submitted through the SAP.
- Source: USDA, Food and Nutrition Service
- Description: The SNAP Policy Data Sets include two decades of data on State-level SNAP policy options relating to program administration and data on the monthly distribution schedule for SNAP allotments.
Commercial data
- Source: Circana, formerly Information Resources, Incorporated (IRI)
- Description: The scanner data comprises retail-based sales data and household-based daily purchase data, along with characteristics of the individual food items purchased.
- Source: TDLinx (NielsenIQ)
- Description: The database provides national food-at-home retail location information and information on food store characteristics.
Consumer Food-Service Spending Data
- Source: Consumer Reported Eating Share Trends (CREST) (Circana, formerly NPD Group)
- Description: A nationally representative estimate of consumer foodservice spending, traffic and servings across various demographics and different sectors.
- Source: Circana, formerly Information Resources, Incorporated (IRI)
- Description: ERS reports a household’s costs to consume more than 150 different fresh and processed fruit and vegetable products per edible cup equivalent (the unit of measurement for Federal recommendations for fruit and vegetable consumption).
Multiple-source data and data products
Cost Estimates of Foodborne Illness
- Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; medical costs, and economic, medical and epidemiological literature
- Description: The Cost Estimates of Foodborne Illnesses data product provides detailed data about the costs of 15 major foodborne illnesses in the United States, updating and extending previous ERS research.
Food Consumption and Nutrient Intakes
- Source: National Health and Examination Survey (National Center for Health Statistics), USDA's Food Patterns Equivalents Database (FPED)
- Description: This data product provides estimates of average daily intakes, in total and per 1,000 calories, of foods and of nutrients by food source and demographic characteristics. The product combines dietary recall (WWEIA) and demographic data from NHANES and the Food Patterns Equivalents Database (FPED).
- Source: USDA, Agricultural Marketing Service; USDA, Food and Nutrition Service; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census; National Farm-to-School Network
- Description: The Food Environment Atlas is a web-based mapping tool, developed by ERS, that allows users to compare U.S. counties in terms of their “food environment”—indicators that help determine and reflect a community’s access to affordable, healthy food.
- Source: ERS forecast of U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Producer Price Index (PPI) for Food
- Description: The Food Price Outlook provides food price data and forecasts changes in the CPI and PPI for food.
- Source: USDA, Food and Nutrition Service; U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census; NielsenIQ TDLinx
- Description: The Food Access Research Atlas (formerly the Food Desert Locator) is a mapping tool that allows users to investigate multiple indicators of food store access.
Food Availability and Food Loss
- Source: USDA, Agricultural Research Service; USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service; USDA, ERS; and others
- Description: The ERS Food Availability (Per Capita) Data System (FADS) includes two data series on food available for consumption in the United States: food availability data and loss-adjusted food availability data. Food availability data provide estimates of the annual total and per capita amount of food available for human consumption in the United States over time and serve as the foundation for the loss-adjusted food availability data.
- Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census; U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Description: The ERS Food Expenditure Series is a comprehensive data set that measures the U.S. food system, quantifying the value of food acquired in the United States. Estimates are provided at the national and State level.
- Source: USDA, Agricultural Research Service; Circana, formerly Information Resources, Incorporated (IRI)
- Description: The Purchase to Plate Suite links USDA nutrition databases with grocery scanner data to estimate prices for foods in USDA’s What We Eat in America (WWEIA) series, the dietary part of National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), and estimates the nutrition content of a basket of grocery products.
- Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA); U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Description: The Food Dollar Series is composed of three primary series—the marketing bill series, the industry group series, and the primary factor series—that describe different aspects of the food supply chain.
- Source: U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; Circana formerly Information Resources, Incorporated (IRI); USDA, Agricultural Marketing Service; and USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service
- Description: ERS compares the prices paid by consumers for food with the prices received by farmers for their corresponding commodities. These comparisons are reported for a variety of foods sold in retail food stores.
Food-at-Home Monthly Area Prices
- Source: Circana, formerly Information Resources, Incorporated (IRI)
- Description: The Food-at-Home Monthly Area Prices (F-MAP) product provides retail food price data over time and across areas. The F-MAP includes monthly average unit prices and price indexes for 90 food groups, across 15 geographic areas.
Note: The USDA, ERS National Data Sets webpage provides examples and descriptions for additional sources of data for food economics research, including sources that are not sponsored by USDA, ERS. Many of the sources provide nationally representative data.