Diabetes Food Hub Recipes Scraper

Collect clean, structured recipe data from Diabetes Food Hub for meal planning, nutrition analysis, recipe catalogs, and diabetes-friendly food research. The actor supports category-style recipe collection, direct recipe URLs, and richer output with fewer empty fields and duplicate records.

Features

• Category-ready collection — Gather recipes by meal category such as lunch, breakfast, dinner, snacks, dessert, lower-carb, kidney-friendly, veggie-rich, budget-friendly, and quick-easy.
• Direct recipe support — Start from one or more individual recipe URLs when you only need specific records.
• Cleaner datasets — Removes duplicate results and drops empty values from saved items.
• Richer recipe coverage — Captures recipe details, image fields, nutrition facts, ingredient lists, instructions, tags, servings, and listing metadata.
• Reliable pagination — Continues through result pages until the requested number of recipes is collected.
• Analysis-friendly output — Produces normalized records that are easy to export to spreadsheets, dashboards, databases, and internal tools.

Use Cases

Meal Planning

Build category-specific collections for lunch ideas, high-fiber meals, lower-carb dishes, or kidney-friendly planning.

Nutrition Research

Analyze calories, carbohydrates, protein, fat, serving size, and recipe metadata across a large diabetes-friendly recipe set.

Recipe Catalogs

Populate internal recipe libraries, newsletter content banks, or searchable meal archives with structured fields.

Product and Content Teams

Track recipe variety, prep times, dietary tags, and meal formats to support editorial planning or health-focused features.

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
startUrls	Array	No	[{"url":"https://diabetesfoodhub.org/recipes/lunch"}]	Optional list of category-style URLs or direct recipe URLs.
category	String	No	"lunch"	Fallback category slug when startUrls is empty.
results_wanted	Integer	No	100	Maximum number of recipes to save.
max_pages	Integer	No	30	Safety cap for listing pages to inspect.
proxyConfiguration	Object	No	{"useApifyProxy": true}	Proxy settings for more reliable collection.

Output Data

Each dataset item may contain the following fields:

Field	Type	Description
title	String	Recipe title.
description	String	Recipe summary or overview.
ingredients	String	Ingredients flattened into a single text field.
ingredients_list	Array	Ingredient lines as a list.
instructions	Array	Cleaned step-by-step instructions.
instructions_text	String	Full instruction text in one field.
prep_time	String	Preparation time.
cook_time	String	Cooking time.
total_time	String	Total time when available.
servings	String	Serving count or recipe yield.
image	String	Primary image URL.
image_url	String	Same primary image URL for compatibility.
image_alt	String	Image alt text from the listing.
nutrition	Object	Nutrition facts such as calories, carbs, protein, fat, serving size, sodium, sugar, and fiber when available.
tags	Array	Recipe tags and categories.
tags_text	String	Tags flattened into a single field.
category	String	Requested category slug used for the run.
source	String	Source site identifier.
url	String	Recipe URL.
node_id	Integer	Internal recipe identifier useful for deduplication and tracking.
listing_page	Integer	Listing page where the recipe was discovered.
listing_position	Integer	Position of the recipe in the paginated listing.
card_nutrition	Object	Nutrition values exposed directly in the listing card.

Usage Examples

Basic Lunch Collection

{
    "category": "lunch",
    "results_wanted": 20,
    "max_pages": 5
}

Direct Recipe URLs

{
    "startUrls": [
        { "url": "https://diabetesfoodhub.org/recipes/pesto-chicken-wrap" },
        { "url": "https://diabetesfoodhub.org/recipes/turkey-and-veggie-stir-fry" }
    ],
    "results_wanted": 2
}

Lower-Carb Recipes

{
    "category": "lower-carb",
    "results_wanted": 30,
    "max_pages": 8,
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true
    }
}

Sample Output

{
    "title": "Pesto Chicken Wrap",
    "description": "These savory wraps are a good way to use leftover baked chicken and get some fresh veggies in too. It’s easy to make in five minutes or less!",
    "ingredients": "cooked deli chicken breast 4.00 oz shredded cooked chicken breast about 1/2 cup, pesto sauce 1.00 tbsp prepared pesto, whole-grain tortillas 2.00 whole low-carb whole grain tortilla wraps, bibb lettuce 4.00 leaves bibb or romaine lettuce leaves, feta cheese 4.00 tsp fat-free feta cheese, roasted red peppers 2.00 tbsp roasted red pepper strips, beefsteak tomatoes 1.00 small tomato sliced thin",
    "ingredients_list": [
        "cooked deli chicken breast 4.00 oz shredded cooked chicken breast about 1/2 cup",
        "pesto sauce 1.00 tbsp prepared pesto",
        "whole-grain tortillas 2.00 whole low-carb whole grain tortilla wraps",
        "bibb lettuce 4.00 leaves bibb or romaine lettuce leaves",
        "feta cheese 4.00 tsp fat-free feta cheese",
        "roasted red peppers 2.00 tbsp roasted red pepper strips",
        "beefsteak tomatoes 1.00 small tomato sliced thin"
    ],
    "instructions": [
        "In a small bowl mix the shredded chicken with the pesto and set aside.",
        "Lay the tortillas on a flat surface. Lay the lettuce leaves on the tortilla leaving about 1 inch of the outside of the tortilla uncovered.",
        "Divide the chicken between the tortillas and spread it over the lettuce.",
        "Sprinkle the feta cheese on top of the chicken and add the red pepper strips and tomato slices.",
        "Fold two opposite sides of the tortilla in about 1 inch.",
        "Take one of the other sides and roll it toward the other side making a tight roll.",
        "Serve with a side salad if desired."
    ],
    "instructions_text": "In a small bowl mix the shredded chicken with the pesto and set aside. Lay the tortillas on a flat surface. Lay the lettuce leaves on the tortilla leaving about 1 inch of the outside of the tortilla uncovered. Divide the chicken between the tortillas and spread it over the lettuce. Sprinkle the feta cheese on top of the chicken and add the red pepper strips and tomato slices. Fold two opposite sides of the tortilla in about 1 inch. Take one of the other sides and roll it toward the other side making a tight roll. Serve with a side salad if desired.",
    "prep_time": "5m",
    "total_time": "5m",
    "servings": "2",
    "image": "https://diabetesfoodhub.org/sites/foodhub/files/2025-08/pesto_chicken_wrap.jpg",
    "image_url": "https://diabetesfoodhub.org/sites/foodhub/files/2025-08/pesto_chicken_wrap.jpg",
    "image_alt": "Pesto Chicken Wrap",
    "nutrition": {
        "servingSize": "1 wrap",
        "calories": "230",
        "carbohydrateContent": "22g",
        "fatContent": "7g",
        "proteinContent": "23g",
        "fiberContent": "8g",
        "sodiumContent": "460mg",
        "@type": "NutritionInformation"
    },
    "tags": [
        "Cooking for 1 or 2",
        "Lunch",
        "Quick & Easy"
    ],
    "tags_text": "Cooking for 1 or 2, Lunch, Quick & Easy",
    "category": "lunch",
    "source": "diabetesfoodhub.org",
    "url": "https://diabetesfoodhub.org/recipes/pesto-chicken-wrap",
    "node_id": 334336,
    "listing_page": 0,
    "listing_position": 4,
    "card_nutrition": {
        "servingSize": "1 wrap",
        "calories": "230",
        "carbohydrateContent": "22g",
        "fatContent": "7g",
        "proteinContent": "23g",
        "@type": "NutritionInformation"
    }
}

Tips for Best Results

Use Real Recipe URLs or Category Slugs

• Direct recipe URLs are best when you know the exact pages you want.
• Category slugs like lunch, dinner, lower-carb, and kidney-friendly work well for broader collection.

Keep Result Counts Practical

• Start with 20 to confirm the output you want.
• Increase results_wanted once you are happy with the dataset shape.

Use Proxies for Longer Runs

• Apify Proxy improves reliability during larger collections.
• Residential proxies are useful when you want the most stable results for bigger runs.

Integrations

• Google Sheets — Export recipes for content planning and analysis.
• Airtable — Build searchable meal and nutrition libraries.
• Make — Automate recipe syncing into no-code workflows.
• Zapier — Trigger downstream actions after successful runs.
• Webhooks — Send results into your own services and pipelines.

Export Formats

• JSON — Developer-friendly structured output.
• CSV — Spreadsheet-ready flat export.
• Excel — Reporting and team review.
• XML — Legacy system integrations.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I scrape only one recipe?

Yes. Add a single recipe URL in startUrls and set results_wanted to 1.

Can I collect lunch or dinner recipes only?

Yes. Use the category field with values like lunch, dinner, breakfast, snacks, or desserts.

Does the actor save empty fields?

No. Empty values are removed before items are written to the dataset.

Are duplicate recipes removed?

Yes. Recipes are deduplicated by URL before saving.

Why are some recipes skipped?

Some pages may not expose enough detail to build a complete recipe record. Those pages are skipped instead of saving partial output.

Support

For issues or feature requests, use the Apify Console issue and support channels.

Resources

• Apify Documentation
• Apify API Reference
• Scheduling Runs

Legal Notice

This actor is intended for legitimate data collection and research use. Users are responsible for complying with site terms and applicable laws when collecting and using data.