Open data
Sources and licences
Plate brings together 29,908 foods from public food composition databases. Every food keeps the name of its source, and every number comes from that source. Nothing is guessed.
Laboratory analysed values for basic foods.
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central.
The USDA's long-standing reference database of foods.
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central.
Dishes as eaten, calculated from recipes. Includes dal, roti, idli, dosa, biryani and more.
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central.
Foods commonly eaten in Canada.
Canadian Nutrient File, Health Canada, 2015.
UK reference data, including many South Asian dishes analysed as cooked at home.
McCance and Widdowson's Composition of Foods Integrated Dataset 2021, Public Health England. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Packaged foods sold in India, from product labels. Only items stated per 100 g are used.
Prashanth D S, Devadiga A, Saathwik S, Kamath P R, Bhandary R. Indian Packaged Foods Nutritional Composition Dataset (2026). Mendeley Data. CC BY 4.0.
Community-entered packaged foods with barcodes. Kept as its own layer under the ODbL.
Open Food Facts contributors, openfoodfacts.org. Database licensed under the Open Database License (ODbL).
Katori and spoon portions follow the ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition's Dietary Guidelines for Indians 2024 (Annexure I): a medium katori holds 200 ml, a small one 155 ml and a large one 360 ml; a tablespoon is 15 g and a teaspoon 5 g. A katori in grams is worked out from the cup weight each source gives. Bowls at home vary, so Plate always shows grams too.
Dietary Guidelines for Indians 2024Each food in the API carries its source, licence and attribution. We would be grateful if you could show the attribution wherever you show the data.
Foods from Open Food Facts stay under the Open Database License: if you build and share a database from them, please share it under the ODbL as well.
Food composition values are averages for typical foods. They are a guide, not medical advice.