Question Regarding Data Storage for Search Functionality - Food Names & IDs

[Matvii Voznosimenko]

Hello FatSecret Platform Team,

We're building an application using the FatSecret Platform API and need clarification on your data storage policies for implementing a search feature.

Our Use Case: We need to implement a smart search functionality (similar to ElasticSearch) for users' favorite and recently consumed foods. This requires us to provide fast, fuzzy search capabilities within a user's personal food history.

Current Understanding: Based on your terms of service, we understand that we're only permitted to store food IDs, not the complete food data.

Our Questions:

1. Are we permitted to store food names alongside food IDs on our backend database solely for search indexing purposes?
2. If yes, what is the approved scope?
   • Can we store: Food ID + Food Name + Brand Name (for indexing)?
   • Are there any restrictions on how long we can cache this data?
3. Where should we store this data?
   • Our own database/search engine?
   • Should we implement automatic data refresh from your API?
4. Alternative approaches:
   • If storing names is not permitted, what would be the recommended architecture for implementing efficient search across a user's food history?

We want to ensure full compliance with your terms while providing the best user experience possible.

Thank you for your guidance.

[seba...@fatsecret.com]

Thanks for reaching out.

By default, we only allow the storing of foodIDs. However, we have custom data storage permissions in place with many of our API clients.

Please reach out to our support team here and we can discuss your individual requirements in detail:

https://platform.fatsecret.com/contact