Comparison of Nutrition Databases & Nutrition APIs for health technology & food-as-medicine companies
Feature
GreenChoice
Always allowed
Phone, email, & Slack
Yes, weekly or more frequently upon request
1M+ food & beverage UPCs, U.S.-focused coverage
Very high, a-la-carte licensing
Edamam
$299+ per month
Need to pay extra
Phone & email
No
615K+ UPCs & 10K generic foods
Some flexibility
-
-
Nutritionix
$1,850+ per month
Need to pay extra
Phone & email
-
600K+ UPCs
-
-
-
Yes, limited
Yes, limited
Chomp
$299 per month
Available upon request, need to pay extra
Yes, at this tier
Email only
-
800K+, 700K+ UPCs
-
-
Spoonacular
$300+ per month
-
-
Need to pay extra
Phone & email
-
600K+
-
FatSecret
Not listed
-
-
Need to pay extra
-
Yes, daily
1.9M+, but includes meals & products from 56 countries
-
-
USDA Food Data Central
Free, publicly available dataset
Not applicable
-
Limited
Yes, publicly available dataset
They advertise monthly but in reality quarterly or yearly
~250K branded & unbranded foods
Sometimes

Edamam
Edamam offers a nutrition analysis API starting at $299/month, maintaining a database of 615,000+ UPCs and 10,000 generic foods. Their service focuses on fundamental nutrition data and recipe analysis, with API call-based pricing and optional paid data caching. While they provide essential nutrition facts, ingredient information, and some dietary attributes, they don't offer advanced features like sustainability metrics or custom health attributes. Their phone and email support, combined with flexible data licensing, makes them accessible for smaller projects and basic nutrition analysis needs.

GreenChoice
GreenChoice, a public benefit company, leads the nutrition data landscape with a comprehensive U.S.-focused database of over 1 million food & beverage UPCs. As a platform specializing in food and beverage analysis, they provide complete coverage of product attributes with weekly updates and exceptional support through phone, email, and Slack channels. Their platform uniquely combines traditional nutrition data with verified health attributes and sustainability metrics, offering science-based ratings across nutrition, processing, ingredient safety, and climate impact. They maintain the highest data license flexibility and are the only provider offering comprehensive health attributes and sustainability tracking, including carbon and water footprint labels. Their commitment to academic partnerships and consumer-facing solutions demonstrates their holistic approach to food data.

Nutritionix
Nutritionix positions itself in the premium segment with pricing starting at $1,850/month, offering access to over 600,000 UPCs. Their platform emphasizes restaurant menu items and branded food products, providing comprehensive nutrition facts and ingredient lists with limited allergen attributes. Despite the higher price point, they offer phone and email support and the ability to enrich products on demand. However, they lack advanced features like sustainability metrics or comprehensive dietary analysis tools.

Chomp
Chomp provides a focused food and beverage analysis API at $299/month, covering over 800,000 products including 700,000+ UPCs. Their service includes built-in data caching and basic nutrition information, though support is limited to email only. While they offer annual data licensing options, their platform focuses on essential nutrition facts and ingredient information without advanced features like sustainability metrics or custom attributes.

Spoonacular
Spoonacular's food API starts at $300/month and covers over 600,000 products. Their service emphasizes recipe analysis and basic nutrition information, including product images and descriptions. They provide phone and email support and include basic dietary and allergen attributes. However, they don't offer advanced features like sustainability metrics or scientific ratings, positioning themselves as a recipe-focused nutrition data provider.

FatSecret
FatSecret maintains an extensive global database of 1.9 million items, including restaurant meals across 56 countries. They provide daily data updates and comprehensive basic nutrition information, including product images and detailed categorizations. While their pricing isn't publicly listed, they offer product enrichment capabilities and broad international coverage, though they lack advanced features like sustainability metrics or custom health attributes.

USDA FoodData Central
The USDA FoodData Central stands out as the only free provider in the comparison, offering access to approximately 250,000 branded and unbranded foods. Their database receives monthly updates and includes basic nutrition facts and ingredient lists. While the service includes data caching and provides reliable government-sourced information, it lacks many modern features such as API call-based pricing, dedicated support, or advanced attributes like sustainability metrics. The platform primarily serves as a public resource for basic nutrition information, making it suitable for academic research and basic nutritional analysis but potentially limiting for commercial applications requiring comprehensive product data or advanced features.