help with food in apps

thielke2015

hi my step mum has recently joined mfp and she is having trouble with inputting foods. is there an american version of the app too that might throw up a lot of usa style food? for example when she types in chips it keeps coming up as chrisps in the related search ? all thoughts welcome

RuNaRoUnDaFiEld

Search the exact make. IE Mccain french fries, mcdonalds fries uk, Lidl chunky chips. Or she can scan the bar code from packaging on a smart phone.

The site is used world wide so has foods in from every where.

mangrothian

It's an international app, so not really. As an Australian I need to sift through the US entries, so it's an issue everyone slowly learns to deal with.

Try inputting the brand as well as the type of food; I find that helps. I also find sometimes putting the countries dietary group (for the US it would be USDA) along with the food can sometimes help. If its for a fast food chain, put in the country code (US, AUS, NZ, etc), and the name of the chain along with the food type

In the specific case you mentioned, by 'chips' do you mean potato chips or fries? If you mean potato chips, then scan the barcode of the bag, or search the brand and flavour. If you mean fries bought in a store, if you know the brand, then that would help, or you can type 'usda fries' maybe for a generic option.

Oh, and an extra tip: entries with a tick next to their name are verified foods; the nutritional labels should be more accurate than the other entries, which are created by other MFP users.

lynn_glenmont

mangrothian wrote: »

It's an international app, so not really. As an Australian I need to sift through the US entries, so it's an issue everyone slowly learns to deal with.

Try inputting the brand as well as the type of food; I find that helps. I also find sometimes putting the countries dietary group (for the US it would be USDA) along with the food can sometimes help. If its for a fast food chain, put in the country code (US, AUS, NZ, etc), and the name of the chain along with the food type

In the specific case you mentioned, by 'chips' do you mean potato chips or fries? If you mean potato chips, then scan the barcode of the bag, or search the brand and flavour. If you mean fries bought in a store, if you know the brand, then that would help, or you can type 'usda fries' maybe for a generic option.

Oh, and an extra tip: entries with a tick next to their name are verified foods; the nutritional labels should be more accurate than the other entries, which are created by other MFP users.

Unfortunately, most verified entries are user-entered and cannot really be relied on -- I've found many with errors. Always best to compare an entry to the package label. (MFP used to have asterisks next to all user-entered entries, so you knew the ones without asterisks were more likely to be reliable, but unfortunately they changed the system a year or two ago.)

mangrothian

lynn_glenmont wrote: »

mangrothian wrote: »

It's an international app, so not really. As an Australian I need to sift through the US entries, so it's an issue everyone slowly learns to deal with.

Try inputting the brand as well as the type of food; I find that helps. I also find sometimes putting the countries dietary group (for the US it would be USDA) along with the food can sometimes help. If its for a fast food chain, put in the country code (US, AUS, NZ, etc), and the name of the chain along with the food type

In the specific case you mentioned, by 'chips' do you mean potato chips or fries? If you mean potato chips, then scan the barcode of the bag, or search the brand and flavour. If you mean fries bought in a store, if you know the brand, then that would help, or you can type 'usda fries' maybe for a generic option.

Oh, and an extra tip: entries with a tick next to their name are verified foods; the nutritional labels should be more accurate than the other entries, which are created by other MFP users.

Unfortunately, most verified entries are user-entered and cannot really be relied on -- I've found many with errors. Always best to compare an entry to the package label. (MFP used to have asterisks next to all user-entered entries, so you knew the ones without asterisks were more likely to be reliable, but unfortunately they changed the system a year or two ago.)

Aren't the entries with the ticks next to them data that was gathered from the chain's own nutrition panel? I wasn't talking about user verified entries.