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FoodData Central

FoodData Central — free-tier JSON endpoint

🩺 Health & FoodHEALTHYchecked 4h ago
AUTH APIKEYCORS ✓AGENT ✓HTTPS ✓COMMERCIAL ?

FoodData Central offers a free API tier. We verified JSON on a sample GET (Health). Check provider docs for key requirements and limits.

76HOW IT'S SCORED ⓘ
▶ Run liveDocs ↗
Status badge · for your READMEshipapis health badge: 76 · healthy
Uptime history
98.0%90 days
96.7%30 days
1726P50 · ms
3453P95 · ms
operationalpartialdownno data
Response time · last 48 checks
Fastest 431 ms, slowest 2946 ms, most recent 1446 ms.
Live response samplecaptured by our last successful check
GET https://api.nal.usda.gov/fdc/v1/foods/search?query=apple&pageSize=1&api_key=DEMO_KEY

{
  "totalHits": 26835,
  "currentPage": 1,
  "totalPages": 26835,
  "pageList": [
    1,
    2
  ],
  "foodSearchCriteria": {
    "query": "apple",
    "generalSearchInput": "apple",
    "pageNumber": 1,
    "numberOfResultsPerPage": 50,
    "pageSize": 1,
    "requireAllWords": false
  },
  "foods": [
    {
      "fdcId": 2117388,
      "description": "APPLE",
      "dataType": "Branded",
      "gtinUpc": "070038322238",
      "publishedDate": "2021-10-28",
      "brandOwner": "Associated Wholesale Grocers, Inc.",
      "brandName": "BEST CHOICE",
      "ingredients": "FILTERED WATER, APPLE JUICE CONCENTRATE, ASCORBIC ACID (VITAMIN C)."
    }
  ],
  "aggregations": {
    "dataType": {
      "Branded": 26698,
      "SR Legacy": 89,
      "Survey (FNDDS)": 42,
      "Foundation": 6
    },
    "nutrients": {}
  }
}
Call itcurl · fetch · python
curl "https://api.nal.usda.gov/fdc/v1/foods/search?query=apple&pageSize=1&api_key=DEMO_KEY"
const res = await fetch("https://api.nal.usda.gov/fdc/v1/foods/search?query=apple&pageSize=1&api_key=DEMO_KEY");
const data = await res.json();
console.log(data);
import requests

res = requests.get("https://api.nal.usda.gov/fdc/v1/foods/search?query=apple&pageSize=1&api_key=DEMO_KEY")
print(res.json())
Endpoints · 6HealthyFULL DOCS ↗
Monitored path responding — GET /fdc/v1/foods/search?query=apple&pageSize=1&api_key=DEMO_KEY1726 mschecked 4h ago
GET/fdc/v1/foods/search?query=apple&pageSize=1&api_key=DEMO_KEYPROBED

FoodData Central — free-tier JSON endpoint

GET/fdc

Fdc — documented GET route.

GET/fdc/1

Fdc details by ID (example: 1).

GET/fdc?limit=10

Fdc — documented GET route.

GET/fdc/search?q=test

Search by query parameters.

GET/fdc/v1/foods/search?limit=5

Search by query parameters.

Machine-readable spec

We probe a documented GET and expect 2xx JSON — full uptime and health score. Export includes every documented route below.

Response-shape history

Stable. No schema drift observed since monitoring began — the response shape has not changed under our checks.

FoodData Central: common questions

Is FoodData Central free to use?

Yes — FoodData Central is a free health & food API. Free tier: Free tier — API key may be required for production. Whether the free tier allows commercial use is unclear — check the provider docs.

Does FoodData Central need an API key?

Yes — FoodData Central needs a free API key, which you pass on each request. Rate limits: 10 req/window · 9 remaining.

Can I call FoodData Central from the browser?

Yes — FoodData Central returns CORS headers over HTTPS, so front-end code can fetch it directly with no backend proxy. Use the fetch snippet on this page, or hit "Run live" to try it now.

Is FoodData Central up right now?

As of our last scheduled check, FoodData Central is healthy with 98.0% uptime over 90 days and a 1726 ms median response. We re-probe it every sweep — the status badge and uptime chart above always show the latest.