The Food Commodity Intake Database (FCID) was developed by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) to improve the use of the NHANES surveys for dietary exposure assessments. OPP is interested in consumption of Raw Agricultural Commodities (RAC) in the form of food ingredients rather than foods “as eaten” because pesticide residue values are usually measured in raw agricultural commodities. The NHANES survey provides extensive, statistically representative information on food consumption but it does not break down the consumed foods into their ingredients. FCID uses recipe files to translate each food reported as eaten in NHANES surveys into U.S. EPA-defined food commodities.

FCID contains additional information with respect to the cooked status (yes/no), cooking method (baked, broiled, fried, etc.) and food form (fresh, frozen, canned, pickled, etc.) of the ingredients. This additional information is fundamental to assess the final concentration of the pesticide in the food “as eaten”.