7 U.S.C. § 5311a — Joint nutrition monitoring and related research activities

to collect continuous dietary, health, physical activity, and diet and health knowledge data on a nationally representative sample;

to periodically collect data on special at-risk populations, as identified by the Secretaries^*;

to distribute information on health, nutrition, the environment, and physical activity to the public in a timely fashion;

to analyze new data that becomes available;

to continuously update food composition tables; and

to research and develop data collection methods and standards.