k-mfds-fooddb

The K-MFDS FoodDB MCP Server exposes public MCP-compatible tools that let you search the Korean MFDS food database for nutrition information and retrieve supported nutrient codes. The server runs via a standard STDIO-based MCP interface and can be launched with npx or installed globally for reuse in your MCP-enabled environments (ModelContext, MCP SDKs, Cursor, etc.). The available tools include: 1) searchFoodNutrition for querying foods by name, category, manufacturer, and other filters to obtain nutrition details, and 2) getNutritionComponentTypes to fetch the list of nutrition component codes, names, and units supported by the FoodDB.

To use a client, configure it to point to the MCP server with the command npx k-mfds-fooddb-mcp-server and provide GOV_API_KEY as an environment variable. Examples in the README show how clients like Gemini, Cursor, and ModelContext can reference the server, including embedding GOV_API_KEY in their mcp_server configurations. Once connected, you can issue JSON requests to searchFoodNutrition or getNutritionComponentTypes and receive structured responses with nutrition data and component lists. The server is designed to integrate smoothly with MCP tooling, enabling automated prompts to query MFDS data within your workflows.

Prerequisites:

• Node.js and npm installed on your system
• Access to the internet to install the MCP server package

Installation steps:

1. Quick start (using npx, no local install required):

npx k-mfds-fooddb-mcp-server

2. Global installation (recommended if you want to run the server directly without npx each time):

npm install -g k-mfds-fooddb-mcp-server
# Run the MCP server
k-mfds-fooddb-mcp-server

3. Local project installation (for use within a project):

npm install k-mfds-fooddb-mcp-server
# Run via npx or a script that invokes the local binary
npx k-mfds-fooddb-mcp-server

Prerequisites overview:

• Node.js (officially supported by the package)
• npm or yarn for installation
• GOV_API_KEY from the MFDS public API to enable data access (see environment notes)

Environment variables: The MCP server requires GOV_API_KEY to access the MFDS OpenAPI. Set GOV_API_KEY in your environment or in your MCP client configuration (env section). If you encounter API access issues, verify your API key is valid and has the required permissions. Typical issues include invalid keys, expired keys, or insufficient access to the MFDS API. When running in IDEs or containerized environments, ensure the GOV_API_KEY is provided to the container or process running the MCP server. The server communicates via STDIO, so ensure your MCP client is configured to send/receive JSON over STDIO. For Cursor, ModelContext, or Gemini integrations, follow the README examples to add the server entry with command: npx k-mfds-fooddb-mcp-server and env GOV_API_KEY accordingly.