Data Required to 

Inform Nutrition 

Security Policy:

The Thrifty Food Plan, 2021

Kevin Meyers Mathieu, MPH

Economist

United States Department of Agriculture

Food and Nutrition Service

Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion
Nutrition Security

• Goal: ensure all Americans have consistent access to the safe, healthy, 

affordable food essential to optimal health and well-being

• Builds on existing efforts:

• Recognizing that structural inequities make it hard for many people to eat healthy 

and be physically active

• Applying an equity lens

• Achieved through:

• Meaningful support

• Healthy food

• Collaborative action

• Equitable systems

• Visit https://www.usda.gov/nutrition-security for more information
Examples of Nutrition Security Policy

Meaningful support

• Ensure adequate benefits

• Update programs to reflect 

nutrition science

• Promote and support 

breastfeeding

Collaborative action

• Develop, translate dietary guidance

• Equip child nutrition program 

operators

• Tailor products to programs

Equitable systems

• Native American/Tribal school food systems

• SNAP & WIC online shopping

• Bridging language barriers

Healthy food

• Promote fruits and vegetables

• Healthy eating incentives

• USDA foods
Ensuring Adequate Benefits:

The Thrifty Food Plan (TFP)

• Represents a nutritious, practical, and cost-effective diet

• Basis for maximum allotments for the Supplemental Nutrition 

Assistance Program (SNAP)

• 2021 reevaluation ensured adequate benefits — increased 

purchasing power of SNAP benefits by 21%

• 2018 Farm Bill required reevaluations every 5 years moving 

forward — opportunities for evolution
Data Underlying the TFP, 2021

• Ideal characteristics:

• Nationally-representative

• Common, linkable unit of analysis

• Domains:

• Dietary intake

• Food composition

• Food prices

• Opportunities:

• Continuous quality advancement

• Adapt to evolving food supply and market conditions

• Expanding capabilities for practicality testing 
TFP, 2021 

Optimization 

Model
Dietary Intake Data

• What We Eat in America 

(WWEIA) – dietary 

component of the 

National Health and 

Nutrition Examination 

Survey (NHANES)

• In-person 24-hour dietary 

recalls

• Weights account for nonresponse and day of the 

week
Dietary Intake Data 

Opportunities

• Additional data-driven 

measures of diet 

practicality

• State- and territoryrepresentative intakes 

outside Mainland United 

States
Food Composition 

Data

• Food and Nutrient Database 

for Dietary Studies (FNDDS) 

and Food Pattern 

Equivalents Database (FPED)

• Reflects nutrient 

composition and food group 

contribution of foods and 

beverages reported in 

WWEIA, NHANES per 100 

edible grams
Food Composition 

Data Opportunities

• Composition of culturally 

relevant foods

• Continue to develop and 

integrate modernized 

databases (i.e., 

Foundation Foods)

• Accounting for added 

table salt assumptions
Food Price Data

• IRI InfoScan store-based 

scanner data and Purchase 

to Plate Suite

• National average retail 

unit prices of foods and 

beverages reported in 

WWEIA, NHANES
Food Price Data 

Opportunities

• Integrate IRI store weights 

• Real-time, current prices

• State- and territoryrepresentative prices 

outside Mainland United 

States

• Food away from home

• Proprietary data & 

transparency
Thank you!

• Additional information available on:

• USDA’s actions on nutrition security

• The TFP, 2021 report and online supplement

• WWEIA NHANES

• USDA food composition databases, FNDDS and FPED

• IRI InfoScan store-based scanner data

• Questions? Email kevin.meyersmathieu@usda.gov