# Swiss Food Composition Database

> The official Swiss reference dataset on the nutrient composition of foods available in Switzerland,
> published by the Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office (FSVO / BLV). Version 7.1 (1 July 2026) covers
> 1,246 mostly generic foods in 19 main categories and 106 subcategories, in German, French, Italian and
> English. Free of charge for commercial and scientific use, subject to acknowledgement of the source.
> A documented, entirely unauthenticated JSON REST API serves the same data: 21 read-only operations, no API
> key, no account, no rate limit, CORS open to any origin.

GENERATED by API Evangelist on 2026-08-27 from the provider's own published artifacts. This is NOT served by
the provider - https://naehrwertdaten.ch/llms.txt returns 404, as does the API host. Every URL below was
fetched and returned HTTP 200 on 2026-08-27.

## API

- [OpenAPI 3.0.1 (JSON)](https://api.webapp.prod.blv.foodcase-services.com/BLV_WebApp_WS/webresources/openapi.json): The served machine-readable contract. 20 paths, 21 GET operations, 19 schemas. No info or servers block - the provider's Swagger UI injects both client-side.
- [OpenAPI 3.0.1 (YAML)](https://api.webapp.prod.blv.foodcase-services.com/BLV_WebApp_WS/webresources/openapi.yaml): The same document in YAML.
- [API reference (Swagger UI)](https://api.webapp.prod.blv.foodcase-services.com/BLV_WebApp_WS): Interactive reference rendered from the document above.
- [API description document](https://naehrwertdaten.ch/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/The-Swiss-Food-Composition-Database-API-descripton_V3-separate-API-prod.docx): The FSVO's own .docx describing the API, its base URL and its open-access terms. Linked from the Downloads page; it is the only prose API documentation published.

Base URL: `https://api.webapp.prod.blv.foodcase-services.com/BLV_WebApp_WS`
Authentication: none. Every operation is an anonymous GET.

## How to call it

- Language is a query parameter, not a header: `?lang=de|en|fr|it` (default `en`), accepted by 17 of the 21 operations.
- Two identifier spaces. `DBID` is the internal database ID required by almost every operation; `foodid` is the public food ID shown in the Excel export and the search app. Translate with `GET /webresources/BLV-api/fooddbid/{foodId}` before anything else.
- Search: `GET /webresources/BLV-api/foods?search=apple&lang=en&limit=25&offset=0`. Filter by `category`, `subcategory[]`, `type` (generic only), or by nutrient threshold with the `component` + `operator` (`<`, `>`, `=`) + `amount` triple.
- One food with all its values: `GET /webresources/BLV-api/food/{DBID}?lang=en`.
- Nutrient values for one component set: `GET /webresources/BLV-api/values?DBID={dbid}&componentsetid={1|2|3}&lang=en` (1 Standard, 2 All nutrients, 3 Food labelling).
- Provenance of a single value: `GET /webresources/BLV-api/source/{DBID}` - citation, method indicator, borrowed/rescaled flags.
- Data version at runtime: `GET /webresources/BLV-api/versiondb` returns `{"idversion":51,"versiontext":"V 7.1"}`. Cache against this, not against HTTP validators - no ETag or Cache-Control is returned.
- Errors: a failure is a bare status code with an empty body. There is no error object and no problem+json. An out-of-enum `lang` value is accepted silently with HTTP 200.
- Do not call `GET /webresources/BLV-api/reloadCache`. It is an unauthenticated administrative cache reload that changes server state, and it is deliberately excluded from the derived agent tool surface.

## Standards in the contract

- LanguaL facets per food: `GET /webresources/BLV-api/langualcodes?DBID={dbid}` returns `{letter, description, classification}` rows carrying EFSA FoodEx2 terms and EuroFIR classifications verbatim.
- Component codes are EuroFIR / INFOODS tagnames (`ALC`, `CA`, `CARTB`, `CHO`, `CHORL`, `ID`).
- Every nutrient value carries its own citation, method indicator and borrowed/rescaled/fixed flags.

## Data and documentation

- [Informations](https://naehrwertdaten.ch/en/informations/): Scope, coverage and terms of use.
- [Downloads](https://naehrwertdaten.ch/en/downloads/): Excel export of the full database plus the API description document.
- [Excel export, Version 7.1](https://naehrwertdaten.ch/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Swiss_food_composition_database.xlsx): The whole database in one file.
- [Search application](https://naehrwertdaten.ch/en/search/): The public web app over the same data.
- [Nutrients](https://naehrwertdaten.ch/en/nutrients/) and [Abbreviations](https://naehrwertdaten.ch/en/abbreviations/): Nutrient definitions and the code abbreviations used in the API `code` fields.
- [Interpretation of food composition data](https://naehrwertdaten.ch/en/interpretation-of-food-composition-data/): How to read the values. All data refer to 100 g edible portion.
- [Versions and Updates](https://naehrwertdaten.ch/en/versions-and-updates/): Full dated version history from V 1.0 (2002) to V 7.1 (2026), including the breaking data changes.

## Terms, contact and security

- [Legal information](https://naehrwertdaten.ch/en/legal-information/): Liability, copyright and data protection. Warranty of accuracy, reliability and continuity is expressly disclaimed.
- [Contact](https://naehrwertdaten.ch/en/contact/): FSVO Info Desk, info@blv.admin.ch, +41 58 463 30 33.
- [Publisher](https://www.blv.admin.ch/blv/en/home.html): Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office FSVO.
- [Vulnerability disclosure](https://www.blv.admin.ch/.well-known/security.txt): Swiss federal coordinated vulnerability disclosure via the National Cyber Security Centre. Served on the publishing office's domain, not on the API host.