Observation and Suggestion on Entering Foods in Database

powrwrap

I've been on MFP for about 2 months now. It's a great app to track calories and exercise but the database can cause frustrations. Most of my frustrations have to do with how people enter foods into the database. Most foods have the brand name as the first term in the food's description. Once you add a food to your diary and you eat it again at a later date, when you search for that food in the Recent or Most Used lists you can't quickly find it.

It would be nice if the database's first search term was the generic word for the food (and, no, "Generic" is not helpful)

Examples:

Bad Entry: Jennie-O, ground turkey, 93% lean, 4 oz.
Great Entry: Turkey, ground, Jennie-O, 93% lean, 4 oz.

Bad Entry: Heinz--Ketchup, 1 Tbs.
Great Entry: Ketchup, Heinz, 1 Tbs.

Bad Entry: Country Hearth Hamburger Bun, 1 bun
Great Entry: Hamburger Bun, Country Hearth, 1 bun

Bad Entry: Baked Potato, 8 oz.
Great Entry: Potato, Baked, 8 oz.

This way you wouldn't need to scan the Recent and Most Used lists secondary item descriptions to find the food. You can quickly look for the things you ate by the generic term. My technique is to look for foods in the database that put the generic term first, then the brand name and add it to my diary but SO many times the brand name is the first term. Perhaps MFP could provide more detailed instructions in the Add a Food page on how to enter foods so the generic term is the first search term in the foods name.

Thoughts?

JaniceH65

I agree with you.....my frustration is how people add strange serving sizes. For example, I tried to find a beef tomato macaroni casserole, and the serving size previously entered was "1/5 casserole". What the H does that mean?? My casserole might be way bigger than yours! Please ladies and gentlemen, when you're entering foods into the data base, be more specific about measurements. In this situation, cups would be a lot more helpful.