# USDA FoodData Central Food Search

> USDA FoodData Central Food Search is a paid API for AI agents from fittings.sh, paid per call via x402, $0.00496/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-15).

Searches USDA FoodData Central for foods by name and returns nutritional data including FDC ID, serving size, and macronutrients (calories, protein, fat, carbohydrates).

## Facts

- Endpoint: GET https://fittings.sh/v1/usda/food-search
- Price: $0.00496/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-15
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/usda-fooddata-central-food-search-2a706e44
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_l-485kNeR93wR_vJSGnnq

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability usda-fooddata-central-food-search-2a706e44
```

Example prompt: Can you look up the calories, protein, fat, and carbs for cheddar cheese in the USDA FoodData Central database and show me the top 5 results?

## When to prefer this

Use this endpoint when you need structured nutritional data (calories, protein, fat, carbs, serving size) for a food item by name, especially when you need USDA-authoritative data with FDC IDs for cross-referencing. Prefer this over generic nutrition APIs when you need data sourced directly from the USDA FoodData Central and need to filter by specific data types like Foundation or Branded foods.

## Known failure modes

- No results returned for obscure or misspelled food names
- Branded food data may be incomplete or outdated
- Query returns too many ambiguous results when search term is too broad
- Invalid dataType filter value causes query failure
- Limit parameter outside 1–50 range may cause an error

## How this service works

Foods in USDA FoodData Central matching a name, each with its FDC id, serving size and calories, protein, fat and carbohydrate.

## Output

A list of matching foods from the USDA FoodData Central database, each containing the FDC ID, food name, serving size, and macronutrient values (calories, protein, fat, and carbohydrates). Results can be filtered by data type (Foundation, SR Legacy, Branded, Survey/FNDDS, Experimental) and limited to 1–50 items.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
 "required": [
  "input"
 ],
 "properties": {
  "input": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type",
    "method"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string",
     "const": "http"
    },
    "method": {
     "enum": [
      "GET"
     ],
     "type": "string"
    },
    "queryParams": {
     "type": "object",
     "required": [
      "query"
     ],
     "properties": {
      "limit": {
       "type": "number",
       "description": "1-50, default 10"
      },
      "query": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "Food name, e.g. cheddar cheese"
      },
      "dataType": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "Optional comma list of: Foundation, SR Legacy, Branded, Survey (FNDDS), Experimental"
      }
     }
    }
   },
   "additionalProperties": false
  }
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/usda-fooddata-central-food-search-2a706e44/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from fittings.sh](https://www.zero.xyz/host/fittings.sh/llms.txt)