NutritionSignals

Food Image Analysis

Analyze a food photo and return a best-effort nutrition estimate, including macros and confidence metadata.

This endpoint is in active development. Image-based nutrition is inherently probabilistic — always treat results as suggestions and consider adding a user confirmation step.

Endpoint

POST /v1/foods/analyze-image

Requests are made to:

Base URL

https://api.nutritionsignals.com

Authentication

All requests require an API key sent as a Bearer token in the Authorization header.

Authorization header

Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY

Public docs test key: Test_Test_API_Key

Request body

This endpoint accepts multipart/form-data.

Required fields

  • image (file) — the food photo (JPG/PNG/WebP recommended)

Optional fields

  • country (string) — e.g. "DE"

Tip: Photos taken in good lighting with the full plate visible typically yield better results.

Try it

Paste your API key (or use the test key), upload an image, click Run, and you’ll see the raw JSON response.

Try it
POST /v1/foods/analyze-image
Tip: Use test_123 to try quickly, or get a real key in Authentication.
Fast mode (skip saving) (adds ?fast=1)
Choose a JPG/PNG/WebP (max 10MB).
Calling:
https://api.nutritionsignals.com/v1/foods/analyze-image ?fast=1
Response
{}

If you’re running the Firebase Hosting + Functions emulator locally, set Base URL to http://localhost:3000.

Examples

Use any standard HTTP client. Here are copy/paste examples:

curl -sS -X POST "https://api.nutritionsignals.com/v1/foods/analyze-image" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -F "image=@/path/to/meal.jpg" \
  -F "country=DE"

Response

Example response (fields may vary based on image quality and detection confidence):

Example response

{
  "id": "abc123",
  "title": "Chobani Greek Yogurt Strawberry 5.3 oz",
  "brand": "Chobani",
  "search_key": "chobani greek yogurt strawberry 5.3 oz",
  "serving": { "amount": 150, "unit": "g" },
  "calories_kcal_total": 130,
  "protein_g": 11,
  "carbs_g": 14,
  "fat_g": 0,
  "ingredients_text": "yogurt, strawberries, sugar",
  "match": {
    "confidence": 0.72,
    "source": "food_database",
    "country": "DE"
  },
  "image_url": "https://api.nutritionsignals.com/v1/images/scans/...",
  "image_hash": "sha256:..."
}

Behavior and expectations

  • Image results are estimates. Encourage users to confirm or edit detected items and serving sizes.
  • Confidence reflects how certain the system is about the detected food(s) and implied portions.
  • Consider falling back to Food Resolution with user-provided text if the scan is unclear.

Errors

  • 401 — Missing/invalid API key
  • 415 — Unsupported media or invalid image input
  • 422 — Invalid request body (missing image)
  • 429 — Rate limited
  • 5xx — Server error
Read Errors

What’s next?

  • Food Resolution
  • POST /v1/normalize — canonicalize nutrition inputs (coming soon)

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