Sampling and Analysis Plan for a National Fluoride Study

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Nutrient Data Laboratory (NDL), a division of the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), develops reliable databases and state of the art methodology to evaluate and disseminate composition data on foods available in the United States. In 1997, NDL in cooperation with the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (part of the National Institutes of Health) inaugurated the National Food and Nutrient Analysis Program (NFNAP), the main goal of which is to obtain reliable estimates with known variability for the nutrient content of food and beverages consumed by the U.S. population (Pehrsson et al., 2000). Toward this objective, highly representative probability-based food and beverage samples are selected and the resulting nutrient datasets analyzed. NFNAP has already achieved major improvements to NDL’s National Nutrient Databank (NNDB) through a comprehensive revision of scientific concept and technical approach. USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) provides technical support to NDL in the development of unique sampling plans for specific retail foods and nutrients.