Establishing a Bidirectional Correspondence Table between the Japanese Standard Tables of Food Composition 2020 (8th Edition) and the USDA FoodData Central Using Large Language Model-Based Matching
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Background
No official correspondence table exists between the Japanese Standard Tables of Food Composition 2020 (8th edition; MEXT) and the USDA FoodData Central (FDC), despite their widespread use in nutritional research. This absence has hindered international comparison of food composition data for over six decades.
Methods
We developed a bidirectional matching pipeline using Claude Haiku (Anthropic), a large language model (LLM), combining food category mapping, 17-nutrient Euclidean distance ranking, and LLM-based conceptual judgment. Survey (FNDDS) data were excluded from FDC, yielding 8,158 items (Foundation Foods and SR Legacy). Matching was performed in both directions: MEXT→FDC and FDC→MEXT.
Results
Of 2,478 MEXT items, 1,927 (77.8%) were matched to FDC items, while 549 (22.2%) had no FDC equivalent (JP-only foods). Of 8,158 FDC items, 5,445 (66.7%) were matched to MEXT items, while 2,698 (33.1%) had no MEXT equivalent (US-only foods). Bidirectional consensus yielded 435 confirmed food pairs across 13 food categories. Notably, FDC items showed systematically higher calcium (+6.0 mg/100g) across 12 of 13 categories, while MEXT items showed systematically higher potassium (−3.7 mg/100g) across 9 of 13 categories and higher vitamin A as RAE (−3.7 μg/100g) across 8 of 13 categories.
Conclusions
This study presents the first systematic bidirectional food correspondence table between MEXT and USDA FDC. The 435 confirmed pairs constitute a validated common vocabulary for international food composition research. The systematic cross-national differences in calcium, potassium, and vitamin A represent novel findings with direct implications for international dietary comparison studies. The complete correspondence table (Version 0.1) is openly available at https://github.com/shnkgw-rincom/jbfd-correspondence-table (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20103327).
