From Purchase to Plate—New Tools for Understanding What We Eat
- Amber Brown McFadden
- Mar 1, 2022
- 3 min read
How healthy are the foods we buy at the grocery store? Thanks to a new set of tools developed by USDA researchers, we now have a clearer way to answer that question.
The Purchase to Plate Crosswalk (PPC) connects retail food purchase data with the Healthy Eating Index, allowing scientists to measure the nutritional quality of what consumers bring home. Alongside it, two companion tools expand the picture:
Purchase to Plate Price Tool: Estimates the cost of foods reported in the What We Eat in America study (part of NHANES).
Purchase to Plate Ingredient Tool: Breaks down prepared foods into standardized ingredient quantities, making them easier to analyze.
Together, these innovations link grocery scanner data to the USDA’s Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies (FNDDS) using a mix of probabilistic and manual matching.
Why does this matter? The 2018 Farm Act requires USDA to update the Thrifty Food Plan (TFP)—the basis for SNAP benefits—every five years. To do this responsibly, USDA needs accurate, up-to-date information on both the prices and healthfulness of foods Americans purchase. These tools provide exactly that, ensuring future updates to the TFP are grounded in evidence.
Researchers can even request access to National Average Prices for NHANES foods, opening the door to more studies on affordability, nutrition, and food policy.
Big Picture: These tools don’t just crunch numbers—they help policymakers, researchers, and communities understand the real-world balance between cost and nutrition. In a time when food affordability and health are top of mind, the PPC suite offers a powerful way to connect what’s in our shopping carts to what’s on our plates.
Read more in the Journal of Food Composition and Analysis.
Written by Andrea C. Carlson, Carina E. Tornow, Elina T. Page, Amber Brown McFadden, and Thea Palmer Zimmerman.
Development of the Purchase to Plate Crosswalk and Price Tool: Estimating prices for the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) foods and measuring the healthfulness of retail food purchases
Abstract:
The Purchase to Plate Crosswalk (PPC) enables researchers to measure the healthfulness of retail (grocery store) food purchases using the Healthy Eating Index. The Purchase to Plate Price Tool estimates prices for the foods reported by participants in the What We Eat in America study, the dietary component of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (WWEIA/NHANES), and the Purchase to Plate Ingredient Tool breaks the prepared foods into generalized ingredient quantities. This study provides the background and methods used to develop these novel tools. The PPC uses a combination of probabilistic and manual matching to link the scanner data to the USDA Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies (FNDDS). These tools were developed by USDA to meet the 2018 Farm Act requirement that USDA update the market basket of the Thrifty Food Plan (TFP) every five years, starting in 2022. The evidence-based update requires current prices and research on the cost and healthfulness of foods purchased by U.S. consumers. USDA plans to update these tools periodically to enable future updates of the TFP market basket. The National Average Prices for NHANES are available to researchers upon request.
Keywords: Purchase to Plate Crosswalk (PPC); Purchase to Plate Price Tool (PPPT); Purchase to Plate Ingredient Tool (PPIT); Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies (FNDDS); Food coding; Retail food scanner data; Household food scanner data; IRI InfoScan; IRI consumer network panel; Linking data; Food prices; Probabilistic matching; Healthy Eating Index (HEI); Thrifty Food Plan (TFP); USDA food plans
Journal of Food Composition and Analysis.
Volume 106, 2022, 104344, ISSN 0889-1575,
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