So the USDA has some weird database of general nutrition facts about food, and well naturally we're going to steal it for use in our app. But anyhow the format of the lines is like the following:

~01001~^~0100~^~Butter, salted~^~BUTTER,WITH SALT~^~~^~~^~Y~^~~^0^~~^6.38^4.27^8.79^3.87
~01002~^~0100~^~Butter, whipped, with salt~^~BUTTER,WHIPPED,WITH SALT~^~~^~~^~Y~^~~^0^~~^6.38^4.27^8.79^3.87
~01003~^~0100~^~Butter oil, anhydrous~^~BUTTER OIL,ANHYDROUS~^~~^~~^~Y~^~~^0^~~^6.38^4.27^8.79^3.87
~01004~^~0100~^~Cheese, blue~^~CHEESE,BLUE~^~~^~~^~Y~^~~^0^~~^6.38^4.27^8.79^3.87

With those odd ~ and ^ separating the values, It also lacks a header row but thats ok, I can figure that out from the other stuff on their site: http://www.ars.usda.gov/Services/docs.htm?docid=8964

Any help would be great! If it matters we're making an open/free API with Ruby to query this data.

Additionally I'm having a tough time posing this question so I've made it a community wiki so we can all pitch in!