Food Composition Database – USA

The Challenge

Building knowledge about what is in the food we eat and how governments can help.

The Solution

The USDA was driven to create the Food Composition database to launch at the GODAN Summit in 2016. This is all made possible through the open and public nature of the USDA Food Composition database.

The Outcome

This standard reference work is commonly quoted by popular health news articles and scientific publications alike, and is now accessible to others through an open machine readable interface - an API. Using an API to provide REST access to the USDA Food Composition Databases assists application developers to include nutrient data into their applications or websites. For the first time the API provides Food Reports, which list nutrient values for 7,793 foods, for anyone to access.