USDA FoodData — Nutrition & Ingredients

US-authoritative food & nutrition data from USDA FoodData Central — branded and generic foods with brand owner, ingredients, serving size, GTIN/UPC, food category and full nutrient profiles. Search by keyword (filter by data type) or look up specific foods by FDC ID.

Perfect for nutrition & diet apps, food e-commerce, recipe tools and dietary-research datasets.

What you get

Per food:

• Identity — fdcId, description, dataType (Branded / Foundation / SR Legacy / Survey)
• Brand & retail — brandOwner, brandName, gtinUpc, marketCountry
• Classification — foodCategory, ingredients (full label text)
• Serving — servingSize, servingSizeUnit, publishedDate
• Full nutrient profile — nutrients[] of { name, unit, value } (protein, fats, carbs, sugars, sodium, vitamins, …)
• Direct url to the food's FoodData Central page

Bring your own key (free; DEMO_KEY fallback)

Get a free key at fdc.nal.usda.gov/api-key-signup.html and set it in the apiKey input (stored as a secret). If you leave it empty, the actor falls back to the shared DEMO_KEY, which works for trials but is heavily rate-limited (~30 req/hour, 1000/day per IP) — add your own free key for real runs.

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
query	string	—	Food to search, e.g. greek yogurt
dataType	array	—	Filter: Branded, Foundation, SR Legacy, Survey (FNDDS) (empty = all)
fdcIds	array	—	Specific FoodData Central IDs for full detail
apiKey	string (secret)	DEMO_KEY	Your free USDA key (recommended)
maxResults	integer	100	Cap on foods returned from search

Provide a query and/or fdcIds.

Example input

{"query":"greek yogurt","dataType":["Branded"],"maxResults":100,"apiKey":"<YOUR_USDA_KEY>"}

By FDC ID:

{"fdcIds":["2035482","2057648"],"apiKey":"<YOUR_USDA_KEY>"}

Output (one food)

Fields below are the real normalizer output:

{
  "fdcId": 2035482,
  "description": "GREEK YOGURT, PLAIN",
  "dataType": "Branded",
  "brandOwner": "Chobani, LLC",
  "brandName": "Chobani",
  "gtinUpc": "894700010045",
  "foodCategory": "Yogurt",
  "ingredients": "CULTURED PASTEURIZED NONFAT MILK, LIVE AND ACTIVE CULTURES...",
  "servingSize": 170,
  "servingSizeUnit": "g",
  "marketCountry": "United States",
  "publishedDate": "2021-07-29",
  "nutrients": [
    { "name": "Protein", "unit": "G", "value": 17.6 },
    { "name": "Total lipid (fat)", "unit": "G", "value": 0 },
    { "name": "Carbohydrate, by difference", "unit": "G", "value": 5.88 },
    { "name": "Sodium, Na", "unit": "MG", "value": 65 }
  ],
  "url": "https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/2035482/nutrients"
}

Why this actor

• US-authoritative — branded + generic foods complement crowdsourced global sources.
• Full nutrient profiles — every nutrient with name, unit and value, plus ingredients & serving size.
• BYO-key keeps your usage on your own USDA agreement; DEMO_KEY lets you try it instantly.

Pricing

Pay per result — $2.00 per 1,000 results (one result = one food item). No subscription or platform fees.

Related actors

• Open Food Facts Scraper — global, crowdsourced food & barcode data.
• PubChem Scraper — chemical compound properties (keyless).

Notes & limits

• DEMO_KEY is heavily throttled — add a free key for anything beyond a trial.
• Nutrient availability varies by food and data type.
• Public official data; this is an independent tool, not affiliated with the USDA. You are responsible for compliant use of the output.