USDA FoodData Central Scraper

Extract nutrition data and food composition information from the USDA FoodData Central database, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's authoritative source for food nutrient data. This Actor provides programmatic access to over 300,000 food records across four data types: Branded commercial products, SR Legacy standard reference foods, Foundation enhanced nutrient profiles, and Survey (FNDDS) consumption data.

Use this scraper to build nutrition tracking applications, power dietary analysis tools, source data for food service and restaurant SaaS platforms, feed health and wellness apps, conduct food science research, or enrich e-commerce product catalogs with verified USDA nutrient data. Every record includes flattened key macronutrients (calories, protein, fat, carbs, fiber, sugar, sodium) as top-level fields for immediate use, plus the complete nutrient profile with all micronutrients for detailed analysis.

Key Features

• 300,000+ food records from the USDA FoodData Central database
• Search by keyword — find foods by name, ingredient, or description (e.g., "chicken breast", "whole grain bread")
• Filter by data type — Branded (commercial products with UPC codes), SR Legacy (standard reference), Foundation (enhanced profiles), Survey (FNDDS)
• Filter by brand — target specific brand owners (e.g., "Tyson", "Dole", "General Mills")
• Flattened macronutrients — calories, protein, total fat, carbohydrates, fiber, sugar, and sodium as top-level fields
• Full nutrient breakdown — complete array of all nutrients including vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and fatty acids
• Nutrient filtering — only include specific nutrients you need (e.g., just protein and iron)
• Serving size data — serving size, unit, and household serving text
• Product identifiers — GTIN/UPC codes for branded products
• Ingredient lists — full ingredient text for branded and standard reference foods
• Automatic pagination — fetches all pages up to your maxResults limit
• Rate limit handling — automatic retry with exponential backoff on 429 responses

Field	Description
fdcId	USDA FoodData Central unique identifier
description	Food name/description
dataType	Branded, SR Legacy, Foundation, or Survey (FNDDS)
brandOwner	Brand owner company name
brandName	Brand name
ingredients	Full ingredient list text
servingSize	Numeric serving size
servingSizeUnit	Serving size unit (g, ml, etc.)
householdServingFullText	Household serving description (e.g., "1 cup")
calories	Energy in kcal
protein	Protein in grams
totalFat	Total lipid (fat) in grams
carbohydrates	Carbohydrate by difference in grams
fiber	Total dietary fiber in grams
sugar	Total sugars in grams
sodium	Sodium in milligrams
allNutrients	Full array of all nutrient values (when includeNutrients is true)
gtinUpc	GTIN/UPC barcode for branded products
publishedDate	Date the record was published
foodCategory	USDA food category classification

How to Scrape USDA Nutrition Data

Step 1: Get a Free API Key (Recommended)

Visit https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/api-key-signup to get a free USDA API key. This removes the strict rate limits of the DEMO_KEY (30 requests/hour). The Actor will fall back to DEMO_KEY if you don't provide one, but you'll hit rate limits quickly on larger extractions.

Step 2: Configure Your Search

Set your Search Query to find specific foods. Examples:

• chicken breast — finds all chicken breast products across all data types
• avocado — finds avocado entries including branded guacamole products
• protein bar — finds branded protein bars with full nutrition labels

Optionally filter by Data Type to narrow results:

• Branded — commercial products with UPC codes, brand names, and ingredient lists
• SR Legacy — USDA standard reference database, generic food compositions
• Foundation — enhanced nutrient profiles with more detailed analytical data
• Survey (FNDDS) — foods as consumed in dietary surveys

Step 3: Run the Actor

Click Start and the Actor will search the USDA FoodData Central API, paginate through results, and output structured records with flattened macronutrients.

Step 4: Export Your Data

Download results as JSON, CSV, or Excel from the Dataset tab. Each record includes flattened key nutrients as top-level fields for easy analysis, plus the full allNutrients array for complete nutrient profiles.

Input Example

{
    "searchQuery": "chicken breast",
    "dataType": ["SR Legacy", "Foundation"],
    "includeNutrients": true,
    "maxResults": 25
}

Output Example

{
    "fdcId": 171077,
    "description": "Chicken, broilers or fryers, breast, meat only, cooked, roasted",
    "dataType": "SR Legacy",
    "brandOwner": null,
    "brandName": null,
    "ingredients": null,
    "servingSize": 140,
    "servingSizeUnit": "g",
    "householdServingFullText": "1 unit (yield from 1 lb ready-to-cook chicken)",
    "calories": 165,
    "protein": 31.02,
    "totalFat": 3.57,
    "carbohydrates": 0,
    "fiber": 0,
    "sugar": 0,
    "sodium": 74,
    "allNutrients": [
        { "nutrientName": "Protein", "value": 31.02, "unitName": "G" },
        { "nutrientName": "Total lipid (fat)", "value": 3.57, "unitName": "G" },
        { "nutrientName": "Energy", "value": 165, "unitName": "KCAL" }
    ],
    "gtinUpc": null,
    "publishedDate": "2019-04-01",
    "foodCategory": "Poultry Products"
}

Pricing

This Actor uses the USDA FoodData Central API which is free and publicly accessible. The Actor charges:

• $0.002 per result — covers compute and API management overhead
• Typical run of 100 results costs approximately $0.20 in Actor fees plus Apify compute costs
• The USDA API is free but rate-limited. Provide your own API key (free from USDA) for best performance.

Integrations and API Access

Connect this Actor to your workflow via the Apify API, JavaScript client, Python client, or use webhooks to trigger downstream processing. Ideal for:

• Nutrition apps — populate food databases with verified USDA data
• Food service SaaS — menu nutrition labeling and dietary compliance
• Health/wellness platforms — diet tracking, meal planning, macro counting
• E-commerce — enrich product listings with nutrition facts
• Research — food science, public health, agricultural economics
• RAG pipelines — LLM-ready structured nutrition data

FAQ

Do I need a USDA API key? No, the Actor falls back to DEMO_KEY which works but is limited to ~30 requests/hour. For production use, get a free key at fdc.nal.usda.gov/api-key-signup.

What's the difference between data types?

• Branded: Real commercial products (e.g., "Tyson Grilled Chicken Breast Strips") with UPC codes
• SR Legacy: Generic foods (e.g., "Chicken, breast, cooked") — the classic USDA nutrition database
• Foundation: Like SR Legacy but with more detailed analytical methods and sampling data
• Survey (FNDDS): Foods as consumed in NHANES dietary surveys (e.g., "Chicken breast, grilled, skin not eaten")

Why are some nutrient values null? Not all data types include all nutrients. Foundation and SR Legacy have the most complete profiles. Branded products depend on what the manufacturer reports.

Is this legal? Yes. The USDA FoodData Central API is a public, freely accessible government API. All data is in the public domain.

Other Actors You Might Like

• FDA Food Recalls Scraper — FDA food recall and safety alerts
• FDA OpenFDA Scraper — Drug, device, and food enforcement data
• EPA ECHO Scraper — Environmental compliance data

Support

For issues, feature requests, or questions, open an issue on the Actor's page or contact the author via Apify. Data is sourced from the USDA FoodData Central API and is subject to USDA data availability and accuracy.