Sources and credits

Where the data comes from

All nutrition values in Liorno come from USDA FoodData Central, the SR Legacy dataset (formerly the USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference), final release April 2018. The data is published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service.

Suggested citation: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center. FoodData Central. [Internet]. Available from https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/.

The original data is available at fdc.nal.usda.gov.

License

The USDA states that FoodData Central data is in the public domain and not copyrighted, and publishes it under CC0 1.0 Universal. No permission is needed, but the USDA asks users to name FoodData Central as the source. Liorno does that on every food page, in every calculated meal and in every exported file.

Liorno is not affiliated with the USDA

Liorno is an independent project. The USDA does not take part in it, review it or endorse it. Any mistake in how the data is read or shown is ours, not theirs. For questions about the data itself, contact the USDA through FoodData Central.

What SR Legacy is

SR Legacy is the USDA's historical reference table of generic foods. It has thousands of foods, each with dozens of nutrient values (more than 80 on average), per 100 g of edible portion, and household serving sizes (a cup, a slice, one large egg) for almost all of them. The USDA stopped updating it in 2018. Liorno uses the foods that are not tied to a brand or a restaurant chain.

What Liorno does with the data

• Uses the USDA values as published. It only rounds when showing them, with the decimals that suit each nutrient.
• Multiplies by the weight you enter and adds up the foods in the meal.
• Gives foods simpler names (for example, “Black beans, cooked” for “Beans, black, mature seeds, cooked, boiled, without salt”). The original USDA name is on each food's page.
• Shows “no data” where the USDA does not publish a value.
• Calculates the percent Daily Value with the FDA Daily Values for adults and children 4 and older (21 CFR 101.9(c), checked against the eCFR text in force in October 2026 and the FDA's Daily Value page).

Limitations you should know

1. They are averages. Each value is an average compiled from samples, calculations and published literature. The food in front of you can be different, especially foods that vary a lot (fruit, meat, homemade dishes).
2. The data stops in 2018. SR Legacy is no longer updated. Packaged foods have been reformulated since then. For anything with a label, the label wins.
3. Generic foods only. Liorno does not include brand-name products or restaurant-chain items. The database describes foods, not brands.
4. Not every value is a lab measurement. In the USDA's own records, only about a quarter of the values are direct analyses of that food. The rest are calculated, estimated from ingredients, borrowed from a similar food or assumed to be zero. The USDA has no separate “trace” category.
5. Some values are missing. Which nutrients are missing varies by food. The Liorno total says “at least” when a food in your meal has no value for that nutrient. That is different from zero.
6. Raw and cooked are different foods. The data has many raw and cooked pairs, but not all. Pick the entry that matches how you weighed the food.
7. Serving sizes are the USDA's. The household measures (one cup, one slice) come from the USDA's records and can differ from your plate. Liorno chooses which of the USDA measures is shown first, by rules it wrote itself (for example 3 oz for cooked meat and fish, and the FDA's standard serving where there is one). For about 280 foods the USDA has no usable measure, and there Liorno uses estimated serving sizes by food group.
8. Not for food labels. Liorno's results are estimates for personal use. They are not a substitute for the analysis or the approved methods required to label food for sale.
9. Other USDA datasets are not included. FoodData Central also has Foundation Foods, Branded Foods and survey data. Liorno does not use them.

Health notice

Liorno is an informational tool. It is not a substitute for advice from a registered dietitian or a doctor. If you have kidney disease, diabetes, a food allergy, are pregnant or have an eating disorder, work with a health professional.

Found a mistake?

If a number looks wrong, compare it with the original at fdc.nal.usda.gov (search by the FDC ID on the food page). If the mistake is in Liorno, write to contact@liorno.com with the food and the value.