Food AI API

One request: a JPEG of a meal. One response: the dishes Food AI recognizes, with serving sizes and nutrition. This page documents exactly what the demo sends and receives.

Keys, plans, usage and billing are on the developer portal at dev.caloriemama.ai. Nothing there is duplicated here.

Request

curl -X POST \
  "https://api-2445582032290.production.gw.apicast.io/v1/foodrecognition?user_key=YOUR_KEY" \
  -F "media=@plate.jpg"

Method	POST, multipart/form-data with one image file field. The field name is not significant.
Auth	`user_key` query parameter, issued on the developer portal.
Image	JPEG. Longest side at most 544 pixels; larger images are rejected with HTTP 400 and the message `Image size too big. Crop to 544x544 px please`. Resize on the client before sending, as the demo does.
Language	Names come back in English (`en_US`).

Response

A sample photo of enchiladas, trimmed to the first group. The full answer for this photo has seven groups.

{
  "is_food": true,
  "lang": "en_US",
  "imagecache_id": "…",
  "_timing": { "foodai_totaltime": 0.045, "foodai_classificationtime": 0.041 },
  "results": [
    {
      "group": "Enchilada",
      "items": [
        {
          "name": "Enchiladas",
          "food_id": "427d09b46a1b1395",
          "group": "Enchilada",
          "score": 105,
          "servingSizes": [
            { "unit": "1 enchilada", "servingWeight": 0.142 },
            { "unit": "100 g",       "servingWeight": 0.1 },
            { "unit": "1 oz",        "servingWeight": 0.0283495 }
          ],
          "nutrition": {
            "calories": 2042.25,
            "protein": 0.0775,
            "totalFat": 0.1268,
            "totalCarbs": 0.1549
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Field	Meaning
is_food	Whether the photo appears to contain food at all.
results[]	Groups of related dishes, best first. A photo with several foods returns several groups.
results[].group	The group name, for example `Enchilada` or `Noodle Soup`.
items[]	Candidate dishes within the group, best first.
items[].name	Dish name in English.
items[].food_id	Stable identifier for the dish.
items[].score	Confidence. Higher is more likely. It is not a percentage and values above 100 occur; compare scores within one response.
items[].servingSizes[]	Serving options. `servingWeight` is in kilograms.
items[].nutrition	Per kilogram of food. `calories` in kcal/kg; `protein`, `totalFat` and `totalCarbs` as a fraction of weight. Multiply by a `servingWeight` to get one serving.
_timing	Server-side timings in seconds, for diagnostics.
imagecache_id	Identifier of the processed image on the service.

Worked example: enchiladas at 2042 kcal/kg, one enchilada at 0.142 kg, gives 290 kcal per enchilada.

Errors

Status	Body
400	`{"error":{"code":400,"errorDetail":"…"}}`. The message says what to fix, for example the image is too large.
401 / 403	The key is missing, wrong or over its plan. Check the developer portal.

Changelog

September 2026: This site was rebuilt. No change to the API. Earlier changes are on the developer portal.