USDA Meat

I purchase beef and chicken from a nearby grocery store that is USDA approved. But every time I try and search for the meat in the MFP database there aren't any choices with green check marks. How do I know which is accurate?

Replies

  • JaneSnowe
    JaneSnowe Posts: 1,283 Member
    Here's the actual USDA database.

    https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search

    Use it to find the food you want to log, then find a MFP database entry that matches the nutrition information, or create your own entry if you can't find an accurate one.

    Hope this helps!
  • JaneSnowe
    JaneSnowe Posts: 1,283 Member
    edited June 2016
    Oh, and the entries here with the green checkmark are very often wrong. I don't even pay attention to the checkmarks any more. Likewise, ones without the checkmarks can be correct so don't skip them just because they aren't "verified". :)
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 9,961 Member
    The one(s) that match the information at this website:
    https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search

    Alternatively, look for entries that specify cut of meat (sirloin, rib-eye, ground chuck, or at least fat % of ground beef/mince); whether the weight is raw or cooked (preferably use the raw weight); if you use cooked weight, find an entry that matches the manner of cooking (pan-fried versus roasted or grilled, etc.); and how much fat is trimmed. For the chicken, the entry should specify whether it's meat only or meat and skin.

    Then, if you can find one that has both volume and weight options in the pull-down menu for serving size, you've hit gold--not because you want to use volume, but because user-generated entries do not list both 100 g and 1 cup chopped cooked chicken as options for serving size -- those kinds of entries are MFP-created from the USDA database.

    If you can't find entries with the tell-tale weight and volume options, choose an entry that has lots of user confirmations.

    Another thing that I have found to be positively correlated with an accurate database entry is having a figure for potassium. If all else fails (and you still don't want to double-check on the USDA site), at least review the nutrition information for common sense -- if it says a serving has 200 calories and 50 g of fat (a gram of fat is 9 calories), you know something's wrong. If it's an entry for beef and it says it has 0 g of protein, you know something's wrong.
  • soccerkon26
    soccerkon26 Posts: 596 Member
    Thank you sooooo much! :)