Dfyjkt

import UIKit

class ViewController: UIViewController,UITableViewDelegate,UITableViewDataSource 
 //@IBOutlet weak var ingredientText: UILabel!

 struct Recipes: Decodable 
 let recipe_id:String?
 let image_url:String?
 let source_url:String?
 let f2f_url:String?
 let title:String?
 let publisher:String?
 let social_rank:Float64?
 let page:Int?
 let ingredients:[String]?

 private enum CodingKeys: String, CodingKey
 case recipe_id = "recipe_id"
 case image_url = "image_url"
 case source_url = "source_url"
 case f2f_url = "f2f_url"
 case title = "title"
 case publisher = "publisher"
 case social_rank = "social_rank"
 case page = "page"
 case ingredients = "ingredients"
 
 

 var recipes = [Recipes]()
 var food = "chicken"
 var food2 = "peas"
 var food3 = "onions"
 //var recipeData = [Recipe]

 @IBOutlet weak var tableView: UITableView!

 fileprivate func getRecipes() 
 let jsonURL = "http://food2fork.com/api/search?key=264045e3ff7b84ee346eb20e1642d9d9264045e3ff7b84ee346eb20e1642d9d9&food=chicken&food2=onions&food3=peas"

 guard let url = URL(string: jsonURL) elsereturn

 URLSession.shared.dataTask(with: url) (data, _ , err) in
 DispatchQueue.main.async 
 if let err = err
 print("failed to get data from URL",err)
 return
 
 guard let data = data elsereturn

 do 
 let decoder = JSONDecoder()
 decoder.keyDecodingStrategy = .convertFromSnakeCase
 self.recipes = try decoder.decode([Recipes].self, from: data)
 self.tableView.reloadData()
 catch let jsonERR 
 print("Failed to decode",jsonERR)
 
 
 .resume()
 

 func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int 
 return recipes.count
 

 func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell 
 let cell = UITableViewCell(style: .subtitle, reuseIdentifier: "cell")

 let recipe = recipes[indexPath.row]
 cell.textLabel?.text = recipe.title
 return cell
 

 override func viewDidLoad() 
 super.viewDidLoad()
 navigationController?.navigationBar.prefersLargeTitles = true
 navigationItem.title = "Ingredients"
 getRecipes()
 

I am getting the error:

JSON text did not start with array or object and option to allow fragments not set." UserInfo=NSDebugDescription=JSON text did not start with array or object and option to allow fragments not set.)))

JSONDecoder doesn't provide any JSONSerialization.ReadingOptions.

You could make a manual check whether the first byte of the data is an opening square bracket <5b> or brace <7b>

guard let data = data, let firstByte = data.first else return 
guard firstByte == 0x5b || firstByte == 0x7b else 
 let string = String(data: data, encoding: .utf8)!
 print(string)
 return 

However I'd recommend to use the response parameter to check for status code 200

URLSession.shared.dataTask(with: url) { (data, response , error) in
 if let response = response as? HTTPURLResponse, response.statusCode != 200 
 print(response.statusCode)
 return
 
...

Note: If the CodingKeys match exactly the struct members you can omit the CodingKeys and as you are explicitly using .convertFromSnakeCase you are encouraged to name the struct members recipeId, imageUrl, sourceUrl etc.

You want to decode [Recipe], that is, an Array of Recipe. That mean the first (non-whitespace) character in data has to be [ (to make it a JSON array), and it's not. So you need to figure out why you're getting the wrong response, and fix that problem. Try converting data to a String and printing it:

print(String(data: data, encoding: .utf8))