Working with the FatSecret API

If you are looking for a food and nutrition database API, the FatSecret platform is worth exploring. The FatSecret API provides a wide variety of endpoints allowing developers to incorporate a wealth of food and nutrition data into their applications.

Getting Started

Before we dive into the examples, we need to make sure that we have an API key. You can get your API key by navigating to the FatSecret Developer Center.

Once you have your API key, you can start making requests.

API Endpoints and Example Code

Search Food

To search for food, you can use the food.search API endpoint. Here's an example of how you can search for "apple":

const axios = require('axios');

const appId = 'YOUR_APP_ID';
const appKey = 'YOUR_APP_KEY';
const query = 'apple';

axios.get(`https://platform.fatsecret.com/rest/server.api?` +
    `method=food.search&` + 
    `search_expression=${query}&` +
    `format=json&` +
    `oauth_consumer_key=${appId}&` +
    `oauth_signature_method=HMAC-SHA1&` +
    `oauth_timestamp=${Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000)}&` +
    `oauth_nonce=${Math.floor(Math.random() * 1000000000)}`)
    .then(response => {
        console.log(response.data);
    })
    .catch(error => {
        console.log(error.response.data);
    });

Get Food Information

To get information about a specific food item, you can use the food.get API endpoint. Here's an example code that retrieves the information for the item with food_id of 41000454:

const axios = require('axios');

const appId = 'YOUR_APP_ID';
const appKey = 'YOUR_APP_KEY';
const foodId = '41000454';

axios.get(`https://platform.fatsecret.com/rest/server.api?` +
    `method=food.get&` + 
    `food_id=${foodId}&` + 
    `format=json&` +
    `oauth_consumer_key=${appId}&` +
    `oauth_signature_method=HMAC-SHA1&` +
    `oauth_timestamp=${Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000)}&` +
    `oauth_nonce=${Math.floor(Math.random() * 1000000000)}`)
    .then(response => {
        console.log(response.data);
    })
    .catch(error => {
        console.log(error.response.data);
    });

Get Recipe Information

If you want recipe information, you can use the recipe.get API endpoint. This example retrieves the information for the recipe with recipe_id of 6130071874:

const axios = require('axios');

const appId = 'YOUR_APP_ID';
const appKey = 'YOUR_APP_KEY';
const recipeId = '6130071874';

axios.get(`https://platform.fatsecret.com/rest/server.api?` +
    `method=recipe.get&` + 
    `recipe_id=${recipeId}&` + 
    `format=json&` +
    `oauth_consumer_key=${appId}&` +
    `oauth_signature_method=HMAC-SHA1&` +
    `oauth_timestamp=${Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000)}&` +
    `oauth_nonce=${Math.floor(Math.random() * 1000000000)}`)
    .then(response => {
        console.log(response.data);
    })
    .catch(error => {
        console.log(error.response.data);
    });

Get Recipe Information with Detailed Nutritional Information

If you want more detailed nutritional information for a recipe, you can use the recipe.get, but you need to set the show_nutrition parameter to 1.

const axios = require('axios');

const appId = 'YOUR_APP_ID';
const appKey = 'YOUR_APP_KEY';
const recipeId = '6130071874';

axios.get(`https://platform.fatsecret.com/rest/server.api?` +
    `method=recipe.get&` + 
    `recipe_id=${recipeId}&` + 
    `format=json&` +
    `show_nutrition=1&` +
    `oauth_consumer_key=${appId}&` +
    `oauth_signature_method=HMAC-SHA1&` +
    `oauth_timestamp=${Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000)}&` +
    `oauth_nonce=${Math.floor(Math.random() * 1000000000)}`)
    .then(response => {
        console.log(response.data);
    })
    .catch(error => {
        console.log(error.response.data);
    });

Conclusion

In this short guide, we showed how to access the FatSecret API and provided several examples of how to retrieve food and recipe information. With this information, you can build a variety of applications, including recipe managers, meal planners, and nutrition trackers. Happy coding!