Add ACF data to rest API query. Live search feature.

I have a baking website that uses the content for recipes but uses ACF for some info to fill out like ingredients, bake time, ect. The content is searchable If i put power sugar somewhere in the body it will bring up the caramel recipe for example. However If I have cats as an ingredient using ACF so my client has a formatted website when I search cats nothing comes up. The reason is it's saved in the database as some kind of serialized code. I want to add a query for each custom field but it's a bit tricky and when I think i add it nothing shows up in the search anymore.

database

wp json

<?php


add_action('rest_api_init', 'bakingRegisterSearch');

function bakingRegisterSearch()
{
    register_rest_route('baking/v1', 'search', array(
        'methods' => WP_REST_SERVER::READABLE,
        'callback' => 'bakingSearchResults',
    ));
}

function bakingSearchResults($data)
{
    $mainQuery = new WP_Query(array(
        'post_type' => array('post', 'page', 'recipe', 'categories',),
        's' => sanitize_text_field($data['term']),
    ));
    $results = array(
        'generalInfo' => array(),
        'recipes' => array(),
        'categories' => array(),

    );

    while ($mainQuery->have_posts()) {
        $mainQuery->the_post();

        if (get_post_type() == 'post' or get_post_type() == 'page') {
            array_push($results['generalInfo'], array(
                'title' => get_the_title(),
                'permalink' => get_the_permalink(),
                'postType' => get_post_type(),
                'authorName' => get_the_author()
            ));
        }

        if (get_post_type() == 'recipe') {
            array_push($results['recipes'], array(
                'title' => get_the_title(),
                'permalink' => get_the_permalink(),
                'image' => get_the_post_thumbnail_url(0, 'recipe-card')
            ));
        }

        if (get_post_type() == 'categories') {
            array_push($results['categories'], array(
                'title' => get_the_title(),
                'permalink' => get_the_permalink(),
                'image' => get_the_post_thumbnail_url(0, 'recipe-card')
            ));
        }
    }

    return $results;
}