How do I check a food's nutrition information?

Type a food into the search box above — for example 'banana', 'oats' or 'chicken breast' — and press Search foods. Pick a result from the list and its nutrition panel appears, showing calories, protein, carbohydrate, fat, fibre, sugars and sodium, plus additional nutrients where USDA has them.

Where does this nutrition data come from?

From FoodData Central, the public food composition database maintained by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service. Values are shown exactly as USDA publishes them, in USDA's own units. We do not edit, estimate, round up or supplement them.

Are the values per serving or per 100 grams?

Per 100 grams. That is the basis USDA publishes across every record type in its database, which makes it the one figure that can be compared directly between two foods. Where USDA supplies a serving size for a branded product we show it alongside, but we do not convert the nutrient values into a per-serving amount.

Why don't you show per-serving values?

Because that conversion is only mathematically sound when the serving is measured in a unit compatible with the per-100 g basis. Quietly producing a per-serving figure for something measured in millilitres or in '1 piece' would give you a confident-looking number that could be wrong, and we would rather not offer it than offer it unreliably.

Why does a nutrient say “Not available”?

Because USDA did not supply that value for that food. We show “Not available” rather than a zero deliberately: a missing measurement and a genuine zero are different things, and displaying one as the other would state something untrue about the food.

What do Foundation, SR Legacy, Survey and Branded mean?

They are USDA's record types, and each result shows which one it is because they are not equally precise. Foundation foods are laboratory-analysed whole foods. SR Legacy is USDA's long-standing reference dataset. Survey (FNDDS) describes foods as they are commonly eaten. Branded is label data supplied by manufacturers for specific packaged products.

Can I look up branded or packaged products?

Yes. USDA's database includes a large set of branded products supplied by manufacturers, and those results show the brand name and, where USDA has it, the serving size. Bear in mind that manufacturers reformulate products, so a label in your hand may be newer than the record in the database.

Are these values exact for the food in my kitchen?

No, and no database can be. Nutrition varies with brand, formulation, growing conditions, ripeness, cut, and how the food is prepared or cooked. Treat these figures as a well-sourced reference point rather than a measurement of the specific item you are holding.

Is this tool free, and are my searches stored?

It is free and requires no account. Searches are sent to USDA from our server rather than from your browser, so USDA never receives your IP address, and we do not store what you search for.

Can this tell me whether a food is healthy for me?

No. This tool reports what is in a food; it makes no judgement about whether that suits you. What counts as a sensible amount depends on your overall diet, activity, health and any medical conditions — questions for a doctor or registered dietitian, not a lookup tool.

Food Nutrition Facts Checker

Look up any food in USDA FoodData Central. Free, and no account needed.

Search any food to see its calories, protein, carbohydrate, fat, fibre, sugars and sodium, taken directly from FoodData Central — the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s public food composition database. All values are shown per 100 grams, the basis USDA publishes, so two foods can be compared directly. The tool is free and needs no account.

Search for a food to get started

Type a food above — try 'banana', 'oats' or 'chicken breast' — to see calories, protein, carbohydrates, fat and more from USDA FoodData Central.

About this data

Nutrition information comes from FoodData Central, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s public food composition database. It contains several kinds of record: laboratory-analysed whole foods, USDA’s long-standing reference dataset, survey data describing foods as they are commonly eaten, and manufacturer-supplied label data for branded products. Each result shows which kind it is, because they are not equally precise.

Every value on this page is shown per 100 grams, which is the basis USDA publishes for all of these record types. Where USDA supplies a serving size for a branded product, it is shown alongside — but the nutrient figures themselves are not converted to a per-serving amount, because that conversion is only sound for some units and quietly guessing would be worse than not offering it.

Where USDA does not provide a particular nutrient for a food, this page says “Not available” rather than showing zero. A missing value and a genuine zero are different things, and we would rather be clear about which one you’re looking at.

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service — FoodData Central. fdc.nal.usda.gov

What the record types mean

Every result shows which kind of USDA record it came from, because they are not equally precise.

USDA FoodData Central record types explained
Record type	What it is
Foundation	Whole foods analysed in a laboratory, with detailed sampling information.
SR Legacy	USDA's long-standing reference dataset, widely cited in nutrition research.
Survey (FNDDS)	Foods described as they are commonly eaten, used for national dietary surveys.
Branded	Label data supplied by manufacturers for specific packaged products.

Frequently asked questions

This is reference information

Nutrition information here is educational reference material and can vary by brand, formulation, serving size and preparation method. Healthy Meal Plate provides general health and nutrition information for education — it does not diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease, and it is not a substitute for advice from a doctor or registered dietitian. Healthy Meal Plate is not affiliated with, and is not endorsed by, the USDA. Read our nutrition standards.

Looking for something else? See all free tools.