nutrition.food

USDA FoodData Central nutrition lookup. Two modes: search (query=cheddar cheese) returns matching foods with fdcId, description, data type, category, and brand; detail (fdcId=328637) returns the full analyzed nutrient profile — energy, protein, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals — with USDA nutrient numbers, amounts, and units (per 100 g/ml unless serving fields indicate otherwise), plus ingredients for branded foods. Filter search by dataType: Foundation and SR Legacy are lab-analyzed generic foods, Branded is the packaged-food label corpus, Survey (FNDDS) is as-consumed dishes. Authoritative USDA data covering ~400k foods — use real analyzed values instead of model-estimated nutrition facts.

price
$0.0012 USDC per call
method
GET/api/nutrition/food
payment
x402 v2 · USDC on Base (EIP-3009) or Solana (SPL transfer)
auth
None. Sign the payment, retry with PAYMENT-SIGNATURE.

Overview

The food API is a pay-per-call nutrition endpoint built for AI agents and autonomous software. USDA FoodData Central nutrition lookup.

There is no signup and no API key. An agent (or any HTTP client) hits the endpoint, receives an x402 "402 Payment Required" challenge, signs a sub-cent USDC payment on Base or Solana, and retries — the data comes back on the paid request. That makes it a drop-in food data source for an agent tool-use loop, an MCP host, or a backend that needs nutrition data on demand without onboarding to yet another vendor portal.

Use cases

Parameters

NameTypeDescription
querystringFood name to search, e.g. "cheddar cheese". Provide query or fdcId, not both.
min 2 chars · max 120 chars
fdcIdintegerFDC food id — returns the full nutrient profile.
min 0
dataTypestringRestrict search to one data type. Foundation/SR Legacy = analyzed generic foods, Branded = packaged labels, Survey (FNDDS) = as-consumed dishes.
one of: Foundation | SR Legacy | Survey (FNDDS) | Branded
limitinteger
min 1 · max 50
pageinteger
min 1

Code samples

cURLbash
# 1. Probe with no auth → 402 envelope with PaymentRequirements
curl -sS 'https://2s.io/api/nutrition/food?query=xx&fdcId=0&dataType=Foundation&limit=10&page=1'

# 2. Sign + retry with PAYMENT-SIGNATURE:
curl -sS 'https://2s.io/api/nutrition/food?query=xx&fdcId=0&dataType=Foundation&limit=10&page=1' \
  -H 'PAYMENT-SIGNATURE: <base64-json-payload>'

# Or use the canonical runner (handles probe → sign → retry):
#   EVM_PRIVATE_KEY=0x... node --env-file=.env.local \
#     --experimental-strip-types scripts/x402-pay.ts \
#     'https://2s.io/api/nutrition/food?query=xx&fdcId=0&dataType=Foundation&limit=10&page=1'
TypeScript / Node — @2sio/sdktypescript
import { TwoS } from '@2sio/sdk'

const client = new TwoS({
  privateKey: process.env.EVM_PRIVATE_KEY as `0x${string}`,
})

const result = await client.nutrition.food({
  "query": "xx",
  "fdcId": 0,
  "dataType": "Foundation",
  "limit": 10,
  "page": 1
})

console.log('endpoint:', result.endpoint)
console.log('cost:', result.costUsd, 'USDC')
console.log('tx:', result.settlement?.txHash)
console.log('data:', result.data)
Python — 2siopython
import os
from twosio import TwoS

client = TwoS(private_key=os.environ["EVM_PRIVATE_KEY"])

result = client.nutrition.food(query="xx", fdcId=0, dataType="Foundation", limit=10, page=1)

print("endpoint:", result.endpoint)
print("cost:", result.cost_usd, "USDC")
print("tx:", (result.settlement or {}).get("tx_hash"))
print("data:", result.data)
MCP — Claude Desktop / AgentKit / any MCP hostjson
// 1. Add @2sio/mcp to your MCP host config (Claude Desktop example below).
//    EVM_PRIVATE_KEY funds x402 payments per call.

// claude_desktop_config.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "2sio": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@2sio/mcp"],
      "env": { "EVM_PRIVATE_KEY": "0x..." }
    }
  }
}

// 2. Once the server is running, agents call this tool via standard MCP:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "nutrition.food",
    "arguments": {
      "query": "xx",
      "fdcId": 0,
      "dataType": "Foundation",
      "limit": 10,
      "page": 1
    }
  }
}

Response

FieldTypeDescription
okboolean
one of: true
itemsarray
totalintegerTotal matching rows upstream; null when unknown.
sourceobject
metaobject
Example response datajson
{
  "ok": true,
  "items": [
    {
      "fdcId": 1,
      "description": "example",
      "dataType": "example",
      "foodCategory": "example",
      "brandOwner": "example",
      "brandName": "example",
      "servingSize": 1,
      "servingSizeUnit": "example",
      "publishedDate": "example"
    }
  ],
  "total": 1,
  "source": {
    "provider": "example",
    "url": "example",
    "license": "example"
  },
  "meta": {
    "mode": "search"
  }
}

FAQ

Do I need an API key to use the food API?
No. nutrition.food is x402-native — there is no signup and no API key. Your client makes the call, receives a 402 with payment requirements, signs a USDC payment, and retries. Funds come from a wallet you control.
How much does the food API cost?
$0.0012 USDC per call, charged per request. There are no monthly fees, seats, or minimums — you pay only for the calls you make.
Can I try the food API for free first?
Yes. Add ?trial=1 (or the header X-2s-Trial: 1) to get a free real call per endpoint per hour, so you can verify the response shape before wiring payment.
Which networks and tokens are supported?
USDC on Base (via EIP-3009 transferWithAuthorization) or Solana (SPL transfer), using the open x402 payment protocol.
How do I call nutrition.food from an AI agent or MCP host?
Use @2sio/sdk (TypeScript), 2sio (Python), or the @2sio/mcp server for any MCP host — each handles the probe → sign → retry loop for you. See the code samples on this page.

Discovery

Related: food api · nutrition food api · food api for ai agents · x402 nutrition api · food api no api key · pay per call food api · nutrition api