Congress finds that there is increasing evidence of a relationship between diet and many of the leading causes of death in the United States: that improved nutrition is an integral component of preventive health care; that there is a serious need for research on the chronic effects of diet on degenerative diseases and related disorders; that nutrition and health considerations are important to United States agricultural policy; that there is insufficient knowledge concerning precise human nutritional requirements, the interaction of the various nutritional constituents of food, and differences in nutritional requirements among different population groups such as infants, children, adolescents, elderly men and women, and pregnant women; and that there is a critical need for objective data concerning food safety, the potential of food enrichment, and means to encourage better nutritional practices.

It is declared to be the policy of the United States that the Department of Agriculture conduct research in the fields of human nutrition and the nutritive value of foods and conduct human nutrition education activities, as provided in this subchapter.