The original Open Food Facts API for comprehensive product data access and management - stable, production-ready, and widely adopted

Open Food Facts API v2

The original Open Food Facts API provides comprehensive access to the world's largest collaborative food database. This mature, stable API offers reliable endpoints for accessing product information, nutrition data, images, and extensive product metadata.

API v2 is the stable, production-ready API that powers thousands of applications and services worldwide. It provides excellent backward compatibility, extensive functionality, and has been battle-tested in production environments.

API Categories

Products

Retrieve and manage product information, including barcode lookup and product updates

Search

Search for products using various criteria and filters

Images

Upload, crop, rotate, and manage product images with OCR processing

Authentication

Session management, user authentication, and access control mechanisms

Personal Search

Personalized product searches with preference management and filtering

Nutrients

Access nutrition data and nutrient information for products

OCR

Optical Character Recognition for extracting text from product images

Suggestions

Get suggestions for product data completion and improvements

Base URL

All API v2 requests should be made to:

https://world.openfoodfacts.org

Core Capabilities

Retrieve comprehensive product information including nutrition facts, ingredients, allergens, and metadata

Access products and data in multiple languages with proper localization and country-specific information

Upload, crop, rotate, and manage product images with automatic OCR processing and quality validation

Perform complex searches with filters, sorting, faceting, and geographic constraints

Contribute new products and update existing information with validation and quality checks

Efficiently handle multiple product operations with optimized endpoints and bulk processing

Key Features

Data Access

Comprehensive Coverage: Nutrition facts, ingredients, images, packaging, and environmental data
Real-time Updates: Access to the latest product information and contributions
Historical Data: Track changes and maintain audit trails for product information
Quality Metrics: Access to data quality scores and completeness indicators

Integration Features

RESTful Design: Standard HTTP methods and predictable URL patterns
Multiple Formats: JSON, XML, and HTML response formats
CORS Support: Cross-origin requests for web applications
Rate Limiting: Fair usage policies with clear limits and headers

Most read operations are public and don't require authentication. Write operations require user credentials for data integrity and attribution.

Common Use Cases

For Developers

Product Lookup: Get detailed information using barcodes, product IDs, or search queries
Nutrition Analysis: Access comprehensive nutrition data for dietary and health applications
Image Processing: Upload and manage product photos for improved data quality
Data Contribution: Add or update product information to support the open data community

For Applications

Mobile Apps: Barcode scanning and product information display
E-commerce: Product catalog enrichment and nutrition labeling
Research: Food industry analysis and nutritional studies
Compliance: Regulatory reporting and ingredient analysis

Getting Started

Start with the Get Product by Barcode endpoint to understand the data structure

Learn about authentication requirements for different operations

Use the sandbox environment to test your integration

Deploy with proper error handling and rate limiting

Important: Always include the json=1 parameter to receive responses in JSON format. Without it, responses will be in HTML format intended for web browsers.

Migration to v3

API v3 Available: Consider migrating to API v3 for new projects. It offers improved performance, better error handling, and modern RESTful design patterns while maintaining compatibility with Open Food Facts data.

API v2