In July 1941, Teiichiro Shoda, the founder of Nisshin Flour Milling Inc., established the Foundation of Scientific Research and took the position of president.

In 1953, in view of a marked change in dietary habits after the war compared to the prewar period, the main objective of the Foundation was changed to "scientific research on food composition and dietary habits" and the name was changed to "The Foundation for Dietary Scientific Research".At the time of the renaming, former Minister of Finance Keizo Shibusawa served as president (1953 to 1964), followed by former governor of the Bank of Japan Masamichi Yamagiwa (1965 to 1974), former president of Nisshin Flour Milling Inc. Hidesaburo Shoda (1975 to 1991), professor emeritus of the University of Tokyo Masao Fujimaki (1992 to 2012), and Osamu Shoda, president and now the honorary chairman and executive adviser of Nisshin Seifun Group Inc. (2012 to the present).

The Foundation was authorized as a "Public Interest Incorporated Foundation" in April 2013, under the reform of the public interest corporation system.Adding to the existing public interest projects of providing research grants and holding lectures, the Foundation created scholarships for international students in 2013.
In addition, since 2023, the Foundation has started a project to support Japanese students studying abroad.