Error while fetching product data

[TruffelNL]

I get a lot of errors when I try to search for food. To the point the app is not really usable. I can search two or three products and then it fails or it fails immediatly. Is this a rate limit for open food facts? Or is there another problem?

[XavierRolex]

Hey @TruffelNL!
Yeah, I’ve noticed similar issues with the search sometimes, too. It can be frustrating when you're just trying to log a few foods, and it starts failing.
From what I understand, this might be related to the Open Food Facts API, which the app likely uses to fetch product data. That API has some rate limits and occasional reliability hiccups, especially if many people are hitting it at once or your internet is a bit spotty.
Some signs it could be a rate limit:

• It works for 2–3 searches, then stops responding.

• It works again after waiting a few minutes.

• The error message mentions timeouts or too many requests.

That said, it’s also possible the issue is on the app’s side, like how it handles API failures or retries. Either way, you're not alone, and it’d be great to have better error handling or maybe even some kind of offline caching or fallback for common foods in the future.
In the meantime, I’ve been working around it by copying nutrition info from the product label and entering it manually when the search breaks. Not ideal, but it gets the job done.
Would love to hear if there are any plans to improve this or maybe switch to a more stable food database!