FoodData Central

aid: fooddata
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/fooddata/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
name: FoodData Central
kind: government
description: USDA FoodData Central is a comprehensive food composition database and REST API providing nutritional data for
  over 600,000 foods. The service covers multiple distinct data types including Foundation Foods, SR Legacy, Survey Foods
  (FNDDS), Branded Foods, and Experimental Foods. All data is released under CC0 1.0 Universal (public domain) and the API
  is free to use with a data.gov API key. FoodData Central is operated by the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and
  receives twice-annual updates for Foundation Foods and monthly updates for Branded Foods.
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/apis-json-logo.jpg
tags:
- Food
- Nutrition
- USDA
- Government
- Health
- Diet
- Nutrients
- Public Domain
created: '2026-06-13'
modified: '2026-06-13'
specificationVersion: '0.19'
apis:
- aid: fooddata:fooddata-central-api
  name: FoodData Central API
  description: REST API providing access to nutrient composition data for 600,000+ foods across Foundation Foods, SR Legacy,
    Survey Foods (FNDDS), Branded Foods, and Experimental Foods databases. Supports individual food lookup by FDC ID, batch
    retrieval of up to 20 foods, paginated food listing with filtering and sorting, and keyword search with brand filtering.
    Authentication requires a free data.gov API key. Standard rate limit is 1,000 requests per hour per IP address.
  humanURL: https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/api-guide
  baseURL: https://api.nal.usda.gov/fdc/v1
  tags:
  - Nutrition
  - Food
  - Nutrients
  - Diet
  - Branded Foods
  - Foundation Foods
  - FNDDS
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/api-guide
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: https://api.nal.usda.gov/fdc/v1/json-spec?api_key=DEMO_KEY
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: https://api.nal.usda.gov/fdc/v1/yaml-spec?api_key=DEMO_KEY
  - type: Signup
    url: https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/api-key-signup
common:
- type: Website
  url: https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/
- type: Documentation
  url: https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/api-guide
- type: Portal
  url: https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/
- type: Signup
  url: https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/api-key-signup
- type: About
  url: https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/about-us
- type: Contact
  url: https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/contact
- type: FAQ
  url: https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/faq
- type: DataDownload
  url: https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/download-datasets
- type: ChangeLog
  url: https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/log
- type: X
  url: https://twitter.com/usda_ars
- type: Plans
  url: plans/fooddata-plans-pricing.yml
- type: RateLimits
  url: rate-limits/fooddata-rate-limits.yml
- type: FinOps
  url: finops/fooddata-finops.yml
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com