node-red-contrib-open-food-facts

Node-RED Open Food Facts

A Node-RED integration for the Open Food Facts API, providing easy access to food product information, nutrition facts, and ingredient details from the world's largest open food database.

Features

• Product Lookup: Retrieve detailed product information by barcode
• Product Search: Search for products using various criteria (name, brand, category, etc.)
• Taxonomy Access: Access categorized data for additives, allergens, brands, and more
• Product Management: Add new products and upload product photos (requires authentication)
• Insights Access: Get random insights from Robotoff for product improvement
• Asynchronous Operations: All API calls are non-blocking
• Error Handling: Comprehensive error handling with custom error types
• Type Safety: Built with modern JavaScript features

Installation

Install using the Node-RED palette manager or via npm:

npm install node-red-contrib-open-food-facts

Nodes

Basic Nodes

OpenFoodFacts Get Product

Retrieve product information by barcode.

Inputs:

• msg.payload: Barcode string (if not configured in node)

Outputs:

• msg.payload: Product object with details like name, brand, ingredients, nutrition facts

OpenFoodFacts Search Products

Search for products using various filters.

Inputs:

• msg.payload: Search parameters object

Example search parameters:

{
  "search_terms": "chocolate",
  "brands": "Nestle",
  "categories": "snacks",
  "page": 1,
  "pageSize": 20
}

Outputs:

• msg.payload: Search results including count, page information, and products array

OpenFoodFacts Get Taxonomy

Access categorized data (additives, allergens, brands, etc.).

Inputs:

• msg.payload: Taxonomy type (e.g., "additives", "allergens", "brands")

Outputs:

• msg.payload: Taxonomy data object

Extended Nodes

OpenFoodFacts Add Product

Add a new product to the OpenFoodFacts database (requires authentication).

Configuration:

• Username and password credentials required

Inputs:

• msg.payload: Product data object with code, brands (optional), labels (optional)

Outputs:

• msg.payload: API response

OpenFoodFacts Upload Photo

Upload a photo for a product (requires authentication).

Configuration:

• Username and password credentials required

Inputs:

• msg.payload: Object containing:
  • barcode: Product barcode
  • image: Image file
  • type: Object with field (front/ingredients/nutrition) and languageCode

Outputs:

• msg.payload: API response

OpenFoodFacts Get Additives

Retrieve the additives taxonomy.

Outputs:

• msg.payload: Additives taxonomy data

OpenFoodFacts Get Allergens

Retrieve the allergens taxonomy.

Outputs:

• msg.payload: Allergens taxonomy data

OpenFoodFacts Get Brands

Retrieve the brands taxonomy.

Outputs:

• msg.payload: Brands taxonomy data

OpenFoodFacts Get Random Insight

Get random insights from OpenFoodFacts Robotoff.

Configuration:

• count: Number of insights to retrieve (default: 1)
• lang: Language code for filtering (optional)

Outputs:

• msg.payload: Random insights from Robotoff

Example Flows

Basic Product Lookup

[
    {
        "id": "inject-barcode",
        "type": "inject",
        "payload": "3017620422003",
        "payloadType": "str",
        "topic": "",
        "name": "Inject Barcode",
        "wires": [["get-product"]]
    },
    {
        "id": "get-product",
        "type": "openfoodfacts-get-product",
        "name": "",
        "wires": [["debug"]]
    },
    {
        "id": "debug",
        "type": "debug",
        "name": "",
        "active": true,
        "wires": []
    }
]

Search by Category

[
    {
        "id": "search-inject",
        "type": "inject",
        "payload": "{\"categories\": \"beverages\", \"page\": 1}",
        "payloadType": "json",
        "topic": "",
        "name": "Search Beverages",
        "wires": [["search-products"]]
    },
    {
        "id": "search-products",
        "type": "openfoodfacts-search-products",
        "name": "",
        "wires": [["debug"]]
    },
    {
        "id": "debug",
        "type": "debug",
        "name": "",
        "active": true,
        "wires": []
    }
]

API Reference

Product Object Structure

{
  "code": "3017620422003",
  "product_name": "Nutella",
  "brands": "Ferrero",
  "categories": "Spreads, Sweet spreads, Chocolate spreads",
  "ingredients_text": "Sugar, Palm oil, Hazelnuts...",
  "nutriments": {
    "energy_100g": 2252,
    "fat_100g": 30.9,
    "carbohydrates_100g": 57.5,
    "proteins_100g": 6.3
  },
  // ... more fields
}

Search Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
search_terms	string	General search query
brands	string	Filter by brand
categories	string	Filter by category
code	string	Filter by barcode
countries	string	Filter by country
page	number	Page number (default: 1)
pageSize	number	Results per page (default: 20)

Error Handling

The nodes emit errors that can be caught using a catch node. Common errors include:

• Product not found
• Invalid barcode format
• Network connectivity issues
• API rate limiting

Testing

Run the test suite:

npm test

Automated PR Reviews

This repository uses automated PR reviews powered by Amazon Bedrock and Claude AI via GitHub Actions. When you create a pull request, the workflow will automatically:

• Analyze your code changes
• Provide intelligent feedback and suggestions
• Check for potential issues and improvements

Setup Requirements

To enable automated PR reviews, repository administrators need to configure the following secrets in Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions → Repository secrets:

• AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID: Your AWS access key with Bedrock permissions
• AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY: Your AWS secret access key

The workflow uses Claude 3 Haiku via Amazon Bedrock for fast, intelligent code analysis and provides comprehensive reviews including performance and security feedback.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please see our Contributing Guidelines for details.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Credits

This node uses the Open Food Facts API. Open Food Facts is a collaborative project with contributors from around the world.

Support

• For issues and feature requests, please use the GitHub issue tracker
• For questions about the Open Food Facts API, visit their documentation

Acknowledgments

• Open Food Facts team for maintaining the amazing food products database
• Node-RED community for the excellent IoT platform

Changelog

[0.3.0] - 2025-06-01

Security

• Implemented authentication for write operations (addProduct, uploadPhoto)
• Added comprehensive input validation and sanitization
• Upgraded XSS protection to use he.js library
• Enforced HTTPS for authenticated requests
• Added magic byte validation for uploaded images

Added

• Comprehensive Node-RED node test suite
• Security policy (SECURITY.md)
• Development guidelines (CLAUDE.md)
• Automated PR review workflow
• Dependabot configuration

Fixed

• Inconsistent error handling across nodes
• Missing authentication despite credential collection (Issue #2)

Dependencies

• Added he.js for robust HTML entity encoding