Install Jentic One Beta

Connect the Food Data Central API to your agent

Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the Food Data Central API, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.

Two steps, two machines. Install the instance in a safe environment, then register your agent from wherever it runs.

Step 1: Jentic One Host machine

# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL "https://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Fnal.usda.gov%2Fnal-usda" | sh

Step 2: Agent machine

# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL "https://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Fnal.usda.gov%2Fnal-usda" | sh
jentic register       # connects your agent to your Jentic One instance

Jentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.

Capabilities

What an agent can do with Food Data Central API.

Search the FoodData Central database for foods matching keywords such as 'greek yogurt' or 'brown rice'

Retrieve the full nutrient profile for a single food item by its FDC ID

Look up nutrient data for several foods in one request by passing a list of FDC IDs

Page through the abridged food list to build a local nutrient index for an application

GET STARTED

Start building with Food Data Central API

Explore with Jentic One

View OpenAPI Document

Use Cases

Patterns agents use Food Data Central API for, with concrete tasks.

★ AI Nutrition Agent

An AI agent connected through Jentic answers nutrition questions by searching FoodData Central and reading the returned nutrient values, so a user asking for the protein in a serving of lentils gets a sourced figure without the developer wiring the USDA endpoints by hand. The agent runs a keyword search, selects the matching food, and retrieves its nutrient profile in two calls.

Search FoodData Central for 'cooked lentils', select the best match, and return its protein, fiber, and calorie values per 100 grams

Recipe Nutrition Calculator

A recipe or meal-planning app totals the nutrients of a dish by looking up each ingredient in FoodData Central and summing the returned values. The multi-food lookup accepts a list of FDC IDs in a single request, so a ten-ingredient recipe resolves without ten round trips, and reference data covers whole foods while branded data covers packaged products.

Look up the FDC IDs for flour, sugar, butter, and eggs, then sum their calories and fat to estimate a recipe's totals

Branded Product Lookup

A grocery or diet-tracking product matches a catalogue item to its FoodData Central record by searching the food name and narrowing by brand owner, then displays the official USDA nutrient panel. Searches can be filtered by data type and paged for large product inventories, keeping lookups fast at scale.

Search for a branded cereal filtered by brand owner and return the serving-size nutrient values from the matching record

Key Endpoints

9 endpoints — the fooddata central api provides rest access to the u.

METHOD

PATH

DESCRIPTION

GET

/v1/food/{fdcId}

Fetch one food item by FDC ID

GET

/v1/foods

Fetch several food items by their FDC IDs

GET

/v1/foods/list

Return a paged, abridged list of foods

GET

/v1/foods/search

Search foods by keyword

GET

/v1/food/{fdcId}

Fetch one food item by FDC ID

GET

/v1/foods

Fetch several food items by their FDC IDs

GET

/v1/foods/list

Return a paged, abridged list of foods

GET

/v1/foods/search

Search foods by keyword

Why Jentic?

What agents get from Jentic-routed access to this vendor.

Setup

Wiring the FoodData Central API by hand means getting a USDA key, learning the api_key query parameter, and handling its paging and FDC ID lookups yourself. Through Jentic you install once, import FoodData Central from the API Directory, store the key once, and your agent calls it.

Permission scoping

FoodData Central is read-only, so a rule can keep your agent to just the food search and lookup operations. You choose which operations it may call, and none of them write back to the USDA database.

Credential isolation

Your USDA API key is stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance and injected at execution time. It never enters the agent's prompt, logs, or context.

Intent-based discovery

Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'find the protein in a food' or 'look up a food by its FDC ID', and Jentic returns the matching FoodData Central operation with its input schema so the agent calls the right endpoint without browsing the reference docs.

FAQs

Specific to using Food Data Central API through Jentic.

What authentication does the FoodData Central API use?

The FoodData Central API authenticates with an API key passed as the api_key query parameter, per its OpenAPI spec. You can request a free key from the USDA. Through Jentic the key is stored encrypted by your own Jentic One instance and injected when the agent calls, so it never sits in the agent's prompt or logs.

Can I search for branded foods with the FoodData Central API?

Yes. The food search operation takes a keyword query and can be narrowed by brand owner and data type, so you can isolate branded products or reference foods and page through the matches. Each result carries its FDC ID, which you pass to the detail lookup for the full nutrient profile.

What are the rate limits for the FoodData Central API?

The OpenAPI spec does not define rate limits for the FoodData Central API. The USDA applies per-key quotas to its data.gov keys, so check https://fdc.nal.usda.gov for the current figures before running large batch jobs.

Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the FoodData Central API?

Yes. Write a rule that allows only the food search and food lookup operations, so the agent reads nutrient data and nothing else. The API is read-only, so there is no write path to expose, and every call the agent makes is logged.

How do I look up a food's nutrients with the FoodData Central API through Jentic?

Search by intent in Jentic with a query like 'search FoodData Central for a food', add the FoodData Central API from the Jentic API Directory, and your agent runs the keyword search then the FDC ID lookup to return the nutrient profile. To run it on your own infrastructure, install Jentic One from its GitHub repo.

Nal Usda Gov Food Data Central API

AI ReadinessFoundational (D+)49/100

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Community OpenAPI document · agent-readyData EnrichmentData TransformationapiKey9 EndpointsREST

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For Agents

Search the USDA FoodData Central database for foods and retrieve their nutrient profiles by FDC ID. Returns calories, macronutrients, vitamins, and minerals for reference and branded foods.

Use for: Find the calorie and protein content of a specific food, Search for branded breakfast cereals in the FoodData Central database, Get the full nutrient breakdown for a food by its FDC ID, Look up nutrient data for a list of recipe ingredients at once

Not supported: Does not handle recipe management, meal logging, or barcode scanning. Use for USDA food and nutrient data lookup only.

The FoodData Central API provides REST access to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's FoodData Central nutrient database. It searches foods by keyword, returns the full nutrient profile for a single food by its FDC ID or for many foods in one request, and pages through an abridged food list for bulk indexing. Results span reference and branded food records, so an application can attach calories, macronutrients, vitamins, and minerals to the ingredients and products it tracks.

Jentic One on Github View OpenAPI Document

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Foundational Compliance

Base layer of spec validity and structural soundness.

Grade: A+Signals: 4

98%

Lint Results

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100%

Resolution Completeness

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100%

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75%

Structural Integrity

Structural correctness score based on schema issues using logarithmic dampening.

Developer Experience & Jentic Compatibility

Clarity, completeness, and ingestion readiness for developers and tooling.

Grade: A-Signals: 4

61%

Example Density

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99%

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Percentage of examples that conform to their schemas.

44%

Response Coverage

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100%

Tooling Readiness

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AI-Readiness & Agent Experience

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24%

Description Coverage

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Error Standardization

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100%

OperationId Quality

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60%

Summary Coverage

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Agent Usability

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Grade: A+Signals: 1

94%

Complexity Comfort

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Security

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Grade: FSignals: 1

15%

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Connect the Food Data Central API to your agent

Capabilities

Start building with Food Data Central API

Use Cases

Key Endpoints

Why Jentic?

Related APIs

FAQs

Nal Usda Gov Food Data Central API

Jentic AI Readiness Score

Food Data Central API

Foundational Compliance

Lint Results

Resolution Completeness

Specification Validity

Structural Integrity

Developer Experience & Jentic Compatibility

Example Density

Example Validity

Response Coverage

Tooling Readiness

AI-Readiness & Agent Experience

Description Coverage

Error Standardization

OperationId Quality

Summary Coverage

Agent Usability

Complexity Comfort

Security

Authentication Strength

AI Discoverability

Descriptive Richness