Barcode

Sharonlizk

Hi Guys,

Newbie Shazza here,

I'm struggling to get the barcode bit up so I can scan food, it keeps taking me to a screen for me to purchase the premium plan.

Is this right?

Thanks

AnnPT77

Yes. Barcode scanning is only available in MFP as a premium feature. That's been true for around a year.

Anecdotally, there seem to be a few people (or a few countries) for which the scanner still works for pre-existing users of MFP. Evidently you're not one of them.

The bar code scanner IMO isn't that big a deal: It still just brings up whatever some other MFP user typed in as matching that bar code, and can be inaccurate. I prefer to search by hand, find correct entries, then log those so they show up in my recent/frequent food lists here.

peggy_polenta

FitBit has food tracking as part of their app and you can scan bar codes on it. you obv also don't have to separately input your excercise burn # since it keeps track of your daily overall burn. not sure if you have a fitbit or another tracker but i would guess any of the trackers have these type of features as part of their app. mfp removing the bar code scanner and forcing people to pay for it is enablist. users who say its not a big deal to search for foods also are not grasping (read: thick) how difficult that can be for many people for a many different reasons.

kshama2001

peggy_polenta wrote: »

FitBit has food tracking as part of their app and you can scan bar codes on it. you obv also don't have to separately input your excercise burn # since it keeps track of your daily overall burn. not sure if you have a fitbit or another tracker but i would guess any of the trackers have these type of features as part of their app. mfp removing the bar code scanner and forcing people to pay for it is enablist. users who say its not a big deal to search for foods also are not grasping (read: thick) how difficult that can be for many people for a many different reasons.

@peggy_polenta - assuming you mean "ableist" rather than "enablist," please elaborate. I'm neurodivergent and interested.

If MFP does not have a policy of making Premium free for people who need it for accessibility issues, they should.

I do go through extra steps in order to get accurate entries. I'd rather put effort into getting an accurate entry than use a low effort incorrect entry. Since the MFP database is crowd sourced and full of inaccurate entries, it might behoove users who find it challenging to use a more accessible and accurate service. (It's more likely than not that the scanned entries are crowd sourced, and thus not necessarily accurate.)

OP - here's my standard bit about finding accurate entries:

Unfortunately, the green check marks in the MFP database are used for both USER-created entries and ADMIN-created entries that MFP pulled from the USDA database. A green check mark for USER-created entries just means enough people have upvoted the entry - it is not necessarily correct.

To find ADMIN entries for whole foods, I get the syntax from the USDA database and paste that into MFP. All ADMIN entries from the USDA will have weights as an option BUT there is a glitch whereby sometimes 1g is the option but the values are actually for 100g. This is pretty easy to spot though, as when added the calories are 100x more than is reasonable.

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov

Use the “SR Legacy” tab - that's what MFP used to pull in entries.

Note: any MFP entry that includes "USDA" was USER entered.

For packaged foods, I verify the label against what I find in MFP. (Alas, you cannot just scan with your phone and assume what you get is correct. Note: scanning is mostly only available with Premium these days.)