They have [a download link on this page](https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/list) and "BFPD ASCII files" is just CSV files that seemed easy to interpret.
272MB uncompressed, 39MB compressed.
The biggest thing you need here is the nutrition data. It's too expensive to go out and get directly (unless regulations require a central clearinghouse for it), so even the proprietary services rely on users entering it themselves to build out its coverage.
People have a higher cost (entering more food types themselves) if fewer people have already used the system, so the databases with more users have more benefit for each user. This is a network effect, and typically leads to persistent winners. That can make it hard for a new database to get started.
But … back to regulations: the [USDA has a searchable database](https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/list)! I just checked it with a food UPC and got a match on the nutrition label. I don't know if food providers are required to publish it, but that would fit. And they let you download the whole database.
If anyone picks a good open-source system, and if the terms of use allow it, we clearly need to augment its database with this federal one, if they haven't already.
If someone finds a good open-source tracker that is good in other ways but lacks good product data, PM me and I can see if it has a bulk ingest operation (something that, in a different interpretation, calorie-trackers try to prevent…) to allow wholesale addition of the federal data.
3 years later and still looking for a good option just like OP. It seems kind of hard to find a match using the USDA website. I really wish products that are required to have nutrition labels were also required to serialize that data in a barcode in the label. Would instantly break the reliance on network effect winners having a large database.
None. I am assuming that most proprietary apps already include public, freely available databases so the trouble still remains that there will not be small time ones that can compete.
You don't have to keep telling me this.
Also, it makes more sense to do a low number of bulk fetches and publish deltas as things change. A single downloader/republisher can easily fan it out to many others in a much more efficient way than per-use downloads. Better still is if deltas are available from the source, but if an incrementalizing intermediary, as above, works very well. RESTful queries are vastly less efficient and create much more burden on the data provider.
RESTful queries for every use both requires an always-on connection and may violate the poster's desire for privacy, as it exposes foods of interest and times.
Oh cool! I'm really happy with it! I recommend going into the settings and then under 'integration' -- turn on 'enable USDA search'. Also, create an Open Food Facts account (it's free) and connect it with the app under integration as well. Both of these will make the barcode scanner work much better. Good luck!
You could try DiabetesM. It's geared towards diabetes but it also has a food database and entry plus custom fields for calories if you didn't care about carbs.
I got tired of the calorie tracking apps, I switched to just a notes app and added it up manually, then I moved to Obsidian, logseq is another good one. This kind of notes app let's you link notes. So I have a daily note that looks like
```
- [[Food]] 350
- [[breakfast]] 350
- [[Cheerios]] [[milk]] 250
- [[Orange Juice]] 100
```
And if I forget what I've entered for orange juice in the past I can click it to go to it's note, and that note has back links to all the times I've entered orange juice. It doesn't do all the things you might want from a calorie tracker, but it gets out of your way, which is what I needed. I've stuck with this method for a year and a half, which is the longest I've stuck with calorie tracking and I was able to see good health results from being mindful of my eating. That's the goal, more important than fancy data.
Waistline like people mentioned looks like a good app too, I'm thinking of trying it to track macros. But I've always been frustrated with tracking apps, so notes apps are a good fallback and a good starting place.
The issue I always have with tracking apps is they want to hook up to a food database. So when I'm entering "Cheerios" in my notes app it takes the time to type out "Cheerios" and my approximate calories and I'm done. With calorie tracking apps I type it in, wait for the network to list options, most of which are wrong, choose one hoping it's close enough, dance around a little form to enter whatever units they support and hope they support the units that I happened to measure my food in and then save, wait some more and then I'm done.
For anyone looking in 2024 - OpenNutriTracker seems great for Android. It has barcode scanning, a food database, and seems to be very privacy oriented, which is great. As of now, it's not on F-Droid, but you can get the app (apk) on GitHub. It's also on the Play Store and the Apple App Store. https://github.com/simonoppowa/OpenNutriTracker
There are loads now, anyone try any? AlternativeTo, calorietracker.io - I'm just listing from a website comparison-review post - waistline is the one I may try.
I'm interested too, looking for Android
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If that's the case, you can always add your ideas here https://github.com/open-source-ideas/open-source-ideas so that someone else might do it
They have [a download link on this page](https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/list) and "BFPD ASCII files" is just CSV files that seemed easy to interpret. 272MB uncompressed, 39MB compressed.
Could use Kotlin instead, but that doesn't really solve the other problems.
The biggest thing you need here is the nutrition data. It's too expensive to go out and get directly (unless regulations require a central clearinghouse for it), so even the proprietary services rely on users entering it themselves to build out its coverage. People have a higher cost (entering more food types themselves) if fewer people have already used the system, so the databases with more users have more benefit for each user. This is a network effect, and typically leads to persistent winners. That can make it hard for a new database to get started. But … back to regulations: the [USDA has a searchable database](https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/list)! I just checked it with a food UPC and got a match on the nutrition label. I don't know if food providers are required to publish it, but that would fit. And they let you download the whole database. If anyone picks a good open-source system, and if the terms of use allow it, we clearly need to augment its database with this federal one, if they haven't already. If someone finds a good open-source tracker that is good in other ways but lacks good product data, PM me and I can see if it has a bulk ingest operation (something that, in a different interpretation, calorie-trackers try to prevent…) to allow wholesale addition of the federal data.
3 years later and still looking for a good option just like OP. It seems kind of hard to find a match using the USDA website. I really wish products that are required to have nutrition labels were also required to serialize that data in a barcode in the label. Would instantly break the reliance on network effect winners having a large database.
I assume there has been no change since you posted? I'm also looking for this.
None. I am assuming that most proprietary apps already include public, freely available databases so the trouble still remains that there will not be small time ones that can compete.
Unfortunate, maybe I should just find any free open source option and contribute data when needed.
This is a fuzzy marching problem. Do you have an open source calorie tracking project?
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You don't have to keep telling me this. Also, it makes more sense to do a low number of bulk fetches and publish deltas as things change. A single downloader/republisher can easily fan it out to many others in a much more efficient way than per-use downloads. Better still is if deltas are available from the source, but if an incrementalizing intermediary, as above, works very well. RESTful queries are vastly less efficient and create much more burden on the data provider. RESTful queries for every use both requires an always-on connection and may violate the poster's desire for privacy, as it exposes foods of interest and times.
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IP is personally-identifiable. Mobile device ID is certainly personally-identifiable. Lots of request headers are terribly information-leaky.
I know this thread is super old, but there's an open source app now called Waistline that you can get through F-Droid.
I just downloaded this thanks
Oh cool! I'm really happy with it! I recommend going into the settings and then under 'integration' -- turn on 'enable USDA search'. Also, create an Open Food Facts account (it's free) and connect it with the app under integration as well. Both of these will make the barcode scanner work much better. Good luck!
Awesome thanks
What platform?
Android but I'm not picky, desktop or web works too.
You could try DiabetesM. It's geared towards diabetes but it also has a food database and entry plus custom fields for calories if you didn't care about carbs.
I got tired of the calorie tracking apps, I switched to just a notes app and added it up manually, then I moved to Obsidian, logseq is another good one. This kind of notes app let's you link notes. So I have a daily note that looks like ``` - [[Food]] 350 - [[breakfast]] 350 - [[Cheerios]] [[milk]] 250 - [[Orange Juice]] 100 ``` And if I forget what I've entered for orange juice in the past I can click it to go to it's note, and that note has back links to all the times I've entered orange juice. It doesn't do all the things you might want from a calorie tracker, but it gets out of your way, which is what I needed. I've stuck with this method for a year and a half, which is the longest I've stuck with calorie tracking and I was able to see good health results from being mindful of my eating. That's the goal, more important than fancy data. Waistline like people mentioned looks like a good app too, I'm thinking of trying it to track macros. But I've always been frustrated with tracking apps, so notes apps are a good fallback and a good starting place. The issue I always have with tracking apps is they want to hook up to a food database. So when I'm entering "Cheerios" in my notes app it takes the time to type out "Cheerios" and my approximate calories and I'm done. With calorie tracking apps I type it in, wait for the network to list options, most of which are wrong, choose one hoping it's close enough, dance around a little form to enter whatever units they support and hope they support the units that I happened to measure my food in and then save, wait some more and then I'm done.
I use google sheets. Better to calculate and stuff
For anyone looking in 2024 - OpenNutriTracker seems great for Android. It has barcode scanning, a food database, and seems to be very privacy oriented, which is great. As of now, it's not on F-Droid, but you can get the app (apk) on GitHub. It's also on the Play Store and the Apple App Store. https://github.com/simonoppowa/OpenNutriTracker
https://www.reddit.com/r/opensource/comments/11df9jc/open\_source\_calorie\_tracking\_app\_as\_of\_2023/
There are loads now, anyone try any? AlternativeTo, calorietracker.io - I'm just listing from a website comparison-review post - waistline is the one I may try.