Using the USDA API

Question

USDA API Link for Reference: https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/doc/apilist/API-SEARCH.md

I'm currently creating a program in Python that references the USDA Search API. I tried to set the data source parameter to "Standard Reference" by adding &ds=SR into an API link such as the one below, however this did not work.

https://api.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/?format=json&q=butter&sort=n&max=25&offset=0&api_key=DEMO_KEY&ds=SR

What am I doing wrong? How do I get the API link to display the food groups of different foods in the results as well too?

Thank you!

Answer 1

You're getting this error:

{
    "errors": {
        "error": [
            {
                "status": 400,
                "parameter": "ds",
                "message": "Unknown ds (Data Source) -- can be Branded Food Products or Standard Reference."
            }
        ]
    }
}

It hints that the ds parameter should be Branded Food Products or Standard Reference, so trying again with https://api.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/?format=json&q=butter&sort=n&max=25&offset=0&api_key=DEMO_KEY&ds=Standard%20Reference ... voilà!

{
    "list": {
        "q": "butter",
        "sr": "1",
        "ds": "Standard Reference",
        "start": 0,
        "end": 25,
        "total": 104,
        "group": "",
        "sort": "n",
        "item": [
            {
                "offset": 0,
                "group": "Baked Products",
                "name": "Archway Home Style Cookies, Peanut Butter",
                "ndbno": "18541",
                "ds": "SR",
                "manu": "Archway Cookies"
            },
            {
                "offset": 1,
                "group": "Dairy and Egg Products",
                "name": "Butter, Clarified butter (ghee)",
                "ndbno": "01323",
                "ds": "SR",
                "manu": "none"
            },
            ...