Why do so many foods having wrong nutritional value posted?

milton3866
milton3866 Posts: 1 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Sorry this is more of a complaint. Don't people read labels when they add foods to MFP? The amount of completely wrong nutritional values baffle and annoy me.

But on the good news side lost 5 lbs so far :)
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Best Answers

  • John772016
    John772016 Posts: 133 Member
    Answer ✓
    milton3866 wrote: »
    Sorry this is more of a complaint. Don't people read labels when they add foods to MFP? The amount of completely wrong nutritional values baffle and annoy me.

    But on the good news side lost 5 lbs so far :)

    Nutritional values can be different in each country, so what's wrong for you may not be somewhere else. Usually just need to search through for one that's accurate.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    Answer ✓
    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.)

Answers

  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 14,238 Member
    Companies sometimes change the amount that's in a package or the formulation of what's there. The numbers can change from that. I remember having two tins of the exact same sardines, but the nutrition information was different on them. The manufacturer had changed things up.
  • MargaretYakoda
    MargaretYakoda Posts: 2,991 Member
    John772016 wrote: »
    milton3866 wrote: »
    Sorry this is more of a complaint. Don't people read labels when they add foods to MFP? The amount of completely wrong nutritional values baffle and annoy me.

    But on the good news side lost 5 lbs so far :)

    Nutritional values can be different in each country, so what's wrong for you may not be somewhere else. Usually just need to search through for one that's accurate.

    Also, the recipes used can change. A fact that people who have food sensitivities and allergies know all too well.

    If possible, it’s easiest use the scanner option. I also recommend saving favorites.
  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 2,220 Member
    The foods are posted by users and many are WAAAYYYY off and when someone is tracking and use these incorrect numbers their totals will be off. This is one of the causes for the “I’m eating x calories and can’t lose weight” posts.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,940 Member
    MargaretYakoda wrote: »
    John772016 wrote: »
    milton3866 wrote: »
    Sorry this is more of a complaint. Don't people read labels when they add foods to MFP? The amount of completely wrong nutritional values baffle and annoy me.

    But on the good news side lost 5 lbs so far :)

    Nutritional values can be different in each country, so what's wrong for you may not be somewhere else. Usually just need to search through for one that's accurate.

    Also, the recipes used can change. A fact that people who have food sensitivities and allergies know all too well.

    If possible, it’s easiest use the scanner option. I also recommend saving favorites.

    The scanner doesn't help though because it pulls up one single database entry that might be as wrong as the first 5 entries when searching by hand. The 6th might then be the right one. Which you'd not get with the scanner.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,940 Member
    what annoys me most are entries per serving or cup. Or worse: some random amount someone thought would be useful for them, but then they shared it with everyone. Like 73gr from a 400gr tin of soup.
  • MargaretYakoda
    MargaretYakoda Posts: 2,991 Member
    edited March 22
    yirara wrote: »
    MargaretYakoda wrote: »
    John772016 wrote: »
    milton3866 wrote: »
    Sorry this is more of a complaint. Don't people read labels when they add foods to MFP? The amount of completely wrong nutritional values baffle and annoy me.

    But on the good news side lost 5 lbs so far :)

    Nutritional values can be different in each country, so what's wrong for you may not be somewhere else. Usually just need to search through for one that's accurate.

    Also, the recipes used can change. A fact that people who have food sensitivities and allergies know all too well.

    If possible, it’s easiest use the scanner option. I also recommend saving favorites.

    The scanner doesn't help though because it pulls up one single database entry that might be as wrong as the first 5 entries when searching by hand. The 6th might then be the right one. Which you'd not get with the scanner.

    Fair point.
    I should have added that I do double check to make sure what comes up matches the nutritional content on the label.

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