Ask HN: What are some good datasources for nutrition information? I am developing a nutrition instant answer for Jive Search and am looking for data sources for queries like "calories in a big mac", "how much protein is in milk?", etc. I am aware of USDA's API but finding relevant products in their API is somewhat challenging. For instance, finding "butter" returns a lot of irrelevant results: https://api.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/?format=json&q=butter&sort=r&max=25&offset=0&api_key=DEMO_KEY I could apply the food group filter to help with relevancy and filter by "Dairy and Egg Products" but without knowing the food group beforehand makes it difficult and a manual process. There is the Nutritionix API but that is pretty expensive for the number of calls we will be making (and this is bootstrapped). There is also Open Food Facts, but they seem to be missing basic items such as calories. |