The Food Availability Data System helps the US Department of Agriculture to keep a track of the type and consumption of food on an average day for the past several decades. The data in this database reflects the amount of food available for human consumption in the United States and is the only source of time-series data on U.S. food availability in the country.
This system which they have built keeps a track of how much food is produced as well as the consumption of food starting from 1970 through. The major food categories include meat, veggies, and fruits. This database takes regularly consumed foods and aggregates them into approximately 800 core foods with similar raw agricultural commodities. Converting these regularly consumed foods into raw agricultural commodities allows for easier cross referencing with chemical residue databases.
The visualization which they have constructed is very helpful to keep a track of the food consumption in the US. The columns represent the food categories and each chart in the column highlight, in the timeline format, the food consumption. Items move up and down based on their ranking in each group during a given year.
Reference – http://flowingdata.com/2016/05/17/the-changing-american-diet/