Food Database, wish we could clean up entries

Would be nice if we could get rid of entries like the following

Generic - Half of Small Banana

Why not use

Fruit - Banana Small (6"-7")

and pick a service size of 1/2.

There are also many duplicate entries and would like to get rid of those w/out the macro nutrient (or get them wrong).

If removing seems unlikely, how about a filter like the following:

Sort By : (*)relevance ()name
Include: () all (*) confirmed [5] times

Where 5 is editable.

The confirmed threshold should probably be in settings so then it would be easy to use from mobile app as well.

Thoughts?
«1

Replies

  • chainone
    chainone Posts: 42
    I'd be happy if we could just filter the entries to remove all the non-USDA ones that MFP provides. I only use those, basically and it'd be much easier than scrolling slowly and trying to see a missing star.
  • CoderGal
    CoderGal Posts: 6,800 Member
    I'd be happy if we could just filter the entries to remove all the non-USDA ones that MFP provides. I only use those, basically and it'd be much easier than scrolling slowly and trying to see a missing star.
    ^I agree and have brought this up before...last year...so far no luck
  • jofjltncb6
    jofjltncb6 Posts: 34,415 Member
    In...

    ...once again...

    ...for this never-ending request.

    Maybe now that the format change is done, they can roll out some filtering options on the database.
  • I wonder if there is a way for MFP to have an indivdiual's database that is not public. I noticed when I enter foods that aren't already in there it is available for everyone. And since I am cross tracking with W/W I only enter Fat, Fiber, Carbs and Protein for my nutrients along with the calories.

    W/W Tracking system has a database that they maintain (not always accurate) and then the individual can enter foods too but it is only availalbe to them.
  • CallMeCupcakeDammit
    CallMeCupcakeDammit Posts: 9,377 Member
    In...

    ...once again...

    ...for this never-ending request.

    Maybe now that the format change is done, they can roll out some filtering options on the database.

    +1
  • jofjltncb6
    jofjltncb6 Posts: 34,415 Member
    I wonder if there is a way for MFP to have an indivdiual's database that is not public. I noticed when I enter foods that aren't already in there it is available for everyone. And since I am cross tracking with W/W I only enter Fat, Fiber, Carbs and Protein for my nutrients along with the calories.

    W/W Tracking system has a database that they maintain (not always accurate) and then the individual can enter foods too but it is only availalbe to them.

    I believe there is a checkbox to indicate if a new entry should be added to the global database...

    ...(hopefully on both the app and the website, but it's at least on one)...

    ...and if you are making entries that are incomplete (or even worse, inaccurate), then please, for the love of all that is pure and holy, please uncheck that box. The integrity of the global database depends on it.

    Only YOU can prevent database degradation
  • I will check when I do entries (FYI I think it was just 1 entry and it was one of my own recipes) and if there is I will not make it global.
  • AlyssaJoJo
    AlyssaJoJo Posts: 449 Member
    When putting in a recipe and searching for flour I really wish that FLOUR was the first thing on the list, not 20 items of flour torillas.
  • The_Enginerd
    The_Enginerd Posts: 3,982 Member
    I'd be happy if we could just filter the entries to remove all the non-USDA ones that MFP provides. I only use those, basically and it'd be much easier than scrolling slowly and trying to see a missing star.
    ^I agree and have brought this up before...last year...so far no luck
    I've been here for over two years, and this request was asked for back then too...
    Same with the data export...
  • I'm on board. It's getting worse and worse. I have to filter through so many personal entries and duplicate entries that logging takes forever. I just want my search to turn up official USDA or restaurant entries, and I can make personal entries that are private.
  • Confuzzled4ever
    Confuzzled4ever Posts: 2,860 Member
    When putting in a recipe and searching for flour I really wish that FLOUR was the first thing on the list, not 20 items of flour torillas.

    +1

    yea.. or i type in banana and get a million things that are not actually a banana.. (banana flavored, banana filled, banana this or that.. but not plain banana) ANNOYING

    I think I typed in beer once and got random result that had nothing to do with beer.


    See below: (what does any of this have to do with beer?????)

    Search our food database by name:
    Beer

    Matching Foods:
    Sort by: Relevance Name
    *Abby's Pizza - Pepperoni With White Sauce

    *Apple (Granny Smith) Adjusted - Green Apple

    *Apple - Small Red Delicious Apple

    Apples - Raw, with skin

    *Avocado - Fresh Plain Avocado

    *Banana - 1 Medium

    Bananas - Raw

    Beef - Ground, 85% lean meat / 15% fat, patty, cooked, broiled (hamburger)

    Beef - Ground, 95% lean meat / 5% fat, patty, cooked, broiled (hamburger)

    Blackberries - Raw

    Blueberries - Raw

    *Born 3 Eggs With Omega-3s - Egg

    Bread - Whole-wheat, toasted

    Broccoli - Raw

    Butter - Salted

    *Butter With Salt - Butter

    Carrots - Baby, raw

    Carrots - Raw

    Celery - Raw

    Cereals - Oats, regular and quick and instant, unenriched, cooked with water, without salt (oatmeal)

    Cherries - Sweet, raw

    Chicken - Breast, meat only, cooked, roasted

    Coffee - Brewed from grounds

    Cookies - Chocolate chip, soft-type

    Corn - Sweet, yellow, canned, whole kernel, drained solids

    Cream - Half and half

    Cucumber - Peeled, raw

    Cucumber - With peel, raw

    *Daisy - Sour Cream

    *Dole Costco** - Banana**

    *Egg (Auchan) - Hard-boiled

    Eggs - Fried (whole egg)

    Eggs - Hard-boiled (whole egg)

    Eggs - Scrambled (whole egg)

    Extreme Pizza - Greek Salad Small

    Extreme Pizza - Yard Sale Indie Pizza

    *Fiber One - Fiber One Bar, Oats & Chocolate

    *Fresh - Fresh Strawberries

    *Fresh Produce - Broccoli - Steamed 1 Cup Chopped (Atkins Net Carbs)

    *Frito Lay - Lay's Classic Potato Chips (Small Bag)

    *Fruit - Banana Small (6"-7")

    *Fruit - Banane (Petite)

    *Generic (White Corn) - Tortilla Chips

    *Generic - Banana - 126g

    *Generic - Beans - Green (8 Oz.)(226g)

    *Generic - Cheese (Cheddar)

    *Generic - Collard Greens, Raw

    Grapes - Raw

    *Great Day Farmers Market Corrected Values - Large Egg Grade A

    *Great Value - American Cheese Slices

    *Great Value - Apple Sauce Unsweetened

    *Great Value - Granulated Sugar

    *Green Giant Fresh - Selected Baby Cut Carrots

    *Heinz (Canada) - Ketchup

    *Homemade -outside Grill - Grilled Chicken - Breast

    Honey

    *Jif - Peanut Butter 2 Tbsp

    *Juicing - Green Seedless - Grapes Green Seedless

    *Juicing - Peach - Peach

    *Kraft - Singles - American Cheese

    *Kraft Salad Dressing (Marsala - Classic Ranch Dressing

    Lettuce - Cos or romaine, raw

    Lettuce - Iceberg (includes crisphead types), raw

    *Lettuce - Mixed Greens

    *Mc - Egg Whites - Egg White

    Milk - Reduced fat, 2% milkfat

    Milk - Nonfat (fat free or skim)

    Mushrooms - Raw

    *Nabisco - Ritz Crackers Original

    *Nancy's Peanut Butter - Natural Creamy Peanut Butter

    Oil - Olive

    *Olma ,5 - Milk 1%

    Onions - Raw

    *Orange* - Orange, Navel

    Oranges - Raw, navels

    *Organic Chicken Breast, Usda - Chicken Breast Skinless Boneless

    *Ovoce - Jablko

    Panne Provincio Artisan Bread - Organic Sesame Semolina
    Pineapple - Raw, all varieties

    Pork - Cured, bacon, cooked, pan-fried

    *Pork - Pork Loin Chop Boneless

    Potatoes - Mashed, home-prepared, whole milk and margarine added

    Potatoes - Russet, flesh and skin, baked

    Raspberries - Raw

    Rice - Brown, long-grain, cooked

    Rice - White, long-grain, regular, cooked

    *Schomberg Farms - Cheddar Cheese

    *Seedless - Whole 1 lb Watermelon Cubed

    Spinach - Raw

    Strawberries - Raw

    Sweet potato - Cooked, baked in skin, without salt (Sweetpotato)

    *Tomato - Tomato Slice

    Turkey breast meat

    *Usda - Banana (1 Inch)

    *Valu-time - Creamy Peanut Butter

    Watermelon - Raw

    *Wendy's - Grilled Chicken Breast Only(plain)

    *Yvonne's Casa - Sweet Seedless Red Grapes

    * = Nutritional information provided by another MyFitnessPal member
  • jofjltncb6
    jofjltncb6 Posts: 34,415 Member
    I will check when I do entries (FYI I think it was just 1 entry and it was one of my own recipes) and if there is I will not make it global.

    Thank you.

    Now...

    ...spread the word!

    :flowerforyou:
  • jofjltncb6
    jofjltncb6 Posts: 34,415 Member
    When putting in a recipe and searching for flour I really wish that FLOUR was the first thing on the list, not 20 items of flour torillas.

    +1

    yea.. or i type in banana and get a million things that are not actually a banana.. (banana flavored, banana filled, banana this or that.. but not plain banana) ANNOYING

    I think I typed in beer once and got random result that had nothing to do with beer.


    See below: (what does any of this have to do with beer?????)

    Search our food database by name:
    Beer

    Matching Foods:
    Sort by: Relevance Name
    <<<snipped...long list of things that go great with beer>>>

    Maybe that's the explanation?

    (I mean, besides the obvious explanation that the MFP database and interface needs serious work.)
  • BarbieAS
    BarbieAS Posts: 1,414 Member
    This really probably belongs in the website feedback board, though it's not like it's something they haven't seen before. But I totally agree. I too prefer to use the non-starred entries as much as humanly possible, especially if I don't have specific nutrition information in front of me to verify with - still might not be perfect but at least it's close and the macros will probably exist/balance. There's nothing that irritates me more than finding an entry for something that says there's (for example) 150 calories, 2 grams of fat, 3 grams of protein and 9 grams of carbs.

    What about just adding a "sort by"? You can already sort by name and "relevance" (whatever the heck that means, since as a PP mentioned, if you want to log an apple and you type in "apple" you typically have to slog through 25 entries for juice and pie and Applebee's mozzarella sticks before you get to a frigging piece of fruit), you could also add a "user-created" and/or "number of confirmations" or whatever.
  • Trilby16
    Trilby16 Posts: 707 Member
    When putting in a recipe and searching for flour I really wish that FLOUR was the first thing on the list, not 20 items of flour torillas.

    I know, right? That is my biggest frustration with the list. If you type "apple" the list should START with plain old apple. Why do I have to type "generic apple - raw" and still get entries that are irrelevent? So annoying.
  • chainone
    chainone Posts: 42
    The key to getting the unstarred USDA entries close to the top is to somehow remember which ones are plural and which ones aren't.
    Carrots = yes
    Sugars = yes
    Sweet potatoes = no
    Sweet potato = yes

    It's not like it's complicated or anything.

    ...

    ...*tears out hair*
  • CallMeCupcakeDammit
    CallMeCupcakeDammit Posts: 9,377 Member
    When putting in a recipe and searching for flour I really wish that FLOUR was the first thing on the list, not 20 items of flour torillas.

    +1

    yea.. or i type in banana and get a million things that are not actually a banana.. (banana flavored, banana filled, banana this or that.. but not plain banana) ANNOYING

    I think I typed in beer once and got random result that had nothing to do with beer.


    See below: (what does any of this have to do with beer?????)

    Search our food database by name:
    Beer

    Matching Foods:
    Sort by: Relevance Name
    <<<snipped...long list of things that go great with beer>>>

    Maybe that's the explanation?

    (I mean, besides the obvious explanation that the MFP database and interface needs serious work.)

    I had to go in and enter "beer" just to see what happened. Not one beer. :huh:

    Go figure. "Beers" worked. It's in there with the root beer.
  • BarbieAS
    BarbieAS Posts: 1,414 Member
    Yup, I've found that with produce all the time - tomatoes = yes. Tomato = no.

    Find me an unstarred entry for regular white sugar. I dare you. (I can never remember the magic combination of words that pulls that one up.)
  • __Di__
    __Di__ Posts: 1,658 Member
    I'm on board. It's getting worse and worse. I have to filter through so many personal entries and duplicate entries that logging takes forever. I just want my search to turn up official USDA or restaurant entries, and I can make personal entries that are private.

    Just so you know, MFP is not exclusive to the U.S. :wink:

    I rarely go to restaurants, how would it work for those of us that just want to find normal grub in the UK?
  • jofjltncb6
    jofjltncb6 Posts: 34,415 Member
    I'm on board. It's getting worse and worse. I have to filter through so many personal entries and duplicate entries that logging takes forever. I just want my search to turn up official USDA or restaurant entries, and I can make personal entries that are private.

    Just so you know, MFP is not exclusive to the U.S. :wink:

    I suspect members outside the U.S. are also dissatisfied with the database interface.

    And I would gleefully welcome a filter option for other entry sources besides just the USDA.
  • BarbieAS
    BarbieAS Posts: 1,414 Member
    I'm on board. It's getting worse and worse. I have to filter through so many personal entries and duplicate entries that logging takes forever. I just want my search to turn up official USDA or restaurant entries, and I can make personal entries that are private.

    Just so you know, MFP is not exclusive to the U.S. :wink:

    I suspect members outside the U.S. are also dissatisfied with the database interface.

    And I would gleefully welcome a filter option for other entry sources besides just the USDA.

    Right, it's not that the USDA info is the be-all-end-all and that there aren't other non-US sources that are absolutely in the same category and more than appropriate to include, it's just that the USDA entries are currently the only ones that are non-user generated, which means that they're currently the only ones that are guaranteed to have some shot at accuracy. I get that the database is primarily user-populated and that's part of what make this site unique (and free), and I certainly do use the user generated entries frequently, but to at least be able to sort/filter would be very very welcome.
  • chezjuan
    chezjuan Posts: 747 Member
    When putting in a recipe and searching for flour I really wish that FLOUR was the first thing on the list, not 20 items of flour torillas.

    + 1,000,000,000,000
  • chezjuan
    chezjuan Posts: 747 Member
    Yup, I've found that with produce all the time - tomatoes = yes. Tomato = no.

    Find me an unstarred entry for regular white sugar. I dare you. (I can never remember the magic combination of words that pulls that one up.)

    Sucrose
  • splashblob
    splashblob Posts: 249 Member
    I'd prefer to have choices to choose what unit to log the measurement. Some of the data that are input by MFP has this option where I can choose to log in gram, Oz, tbsp, tsp in one item but most of them are not.

    Oh I am not the American but I prefer to use USDA database though because it have data on potassium level in the food too. So I can utilize it on high sodium day.
  • herblackwings39
    herblackwings39 Posts: 3,930 Member
    Yup, I've found that with produce all the time - tomatoes = yes. Tomato = no.

    Find me an unstarred entry for regular white sugar. I dare you. (I can never remember the magic combination of words that pulls that one up.)

    Sugars- Granulated (sucrose)

    Edit to add:
    For powdered sugar it is
    Sugars- Powdered
  • thefragile7393
    thefragile7393 Posts: 102 Member
    It would make me happy if I could add my ingredients from my recipes without it being such a hassle. Make options for all kinds of measurements! I can't find two tablespoons of almond milk for instance....I find almond milk but no options for tablespoons. It is almost impossible to get an accurate calorie count when I can't input my ingredients correctly!!!!!!!
  • BarbieAS
    BarbieAS Posts: 1,414 Member
    Yup, I've found that with produce all the time - tomatoes = yes. Tomato = no.

    Find me an unstarred entry for regular white sugar. I dare you. (I can never remember the magic combination of words that pulls that one up.)

    Sugars- Granulated (sucrose)

    Edit to add:
    For powdered sugar it is
    Sugars- Powdered

    Oh, yes, that's right. It's plural. That makes PERFECT sense. :explode:

    (PS - thanks to you and the other PP who did look it up. :flowerforyou: )
  • andrewquamme
    andrewquamme Posts: 3 Member
    I use the app on my phone to scan barcodes. I just went to add a glass of almond milk and it came up as 1/2 a cup. The serving size on the container is 1 cup so I looked further... someone apparently only drinks 1/2 a cup so they made a new entry in the database instead of just entering .5 servings of 1 cup. Maybe if people had some basic math skills... but that seems to be lacking everywhere lately. I asked a girl at the YMCA the other night how long their track is, and her rely was "I'm not sure... but I know six laps is a mile.." *facepalm

    Anyway, maybe if MFP offered a subscription service they could hire some extra people to clean this mess up. I don't know how popular it would be, but I know I would pay extra to get rid of all these ads.
  • MissNordicLight
    MissNordicLight Posts: 140 Member
    The problem is the search function, there should be some filtering options.

    I live in France and I love that other members already have put in many items. I would not only want to have the USDA entries. It's a hassle to find entries in grams and dl instead of oz and what not.
  • beautifulwarrior18
    beautifulwarrior18 Posts: 914 Member
    The problem is the search function, there should be some filtering options.

    I live in France and I love that other members already have put in many items. I would not only want to have the USDA entries. It's a hassle to find entries in grams and dl instead of oz and what not.

    That's crazy, I have a hard time finding things in ounces! Today it took me five minutes to find a can of pepsi. I wish you could type in pepsi and it gives you:
    pepsi
    diet pepsi
    blah blah blah and then you could choose ounce or gram and put in the ounces yourself.