Food Safety and Inspection Service API Rules

x-name: FSIS Recall Usage Rules
description: Operational and consumption rules for the FSIS Recall API.
rules:
  - id: open-data
    statement: The API is open and does not require authentication.
    severity: informational
  - id: client-side-filtering
    statement: All filtering must be performed client-side; the API returns the entire dataset.
    severity: required
  - id: cache-responses
    statement: Cache responses locally to avoid repeated full-dataset downloads.
    rationale: The endpoint returns the full recall corpus on every request.
    severity: advisory
  - id: not-emergency-channel
    statement: Do not rely on the API alone for emergency public alerting.
    rationale: USDA FSIS has authoritative public alerting channels separate from this API.
    severity: required
  - id: respect-government-source
    statement: Cite USDA FSIS as the data source when redistributing.
    severity: advisory