Why are MFP food entries so wildly inaccurate?

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buddy352
buddy352 Posts: 36 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hi All, Been around for a little while. I'm just wondering why there are so many inaccurate food posts on here.? It's hard enough trying to log everything I eat when so many things are just plain wrong. IE whatever soup, no sodium etc., serving öne bowl" MFP has to come up with a better way of doing this. Not sure what that looks like, but it needs to be done.

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  • 230137isntmyweight
    230137isntmyweight Posts: 256 Member
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    look for the ones with the green checkmarks, as these are actually verified.
  • james_keegan63
    james_keegan63 Posts: 5 Member
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    The mfp database is user sourced and maintained.

    Thanks! I was wondering about that too. Is there a way we can flag questionable entries for review and deletion?
  • nanastaci2020
    nanastaci2020 Posts: 1,072 Member
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    I figure 2 primary reasons.

    For prepackaged food items: package contents change. Manufacturers update content details, which changes nutritional data.

    The database is created by humans. People make mistakes.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,998 Member
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    As far as the "vetted" list.

    I am very careful when I use an item for the first time. That way it goes on my Recent list and I don't have to worry about it going forward.

    The other thing for @buddy352 - If you add your own foods to the database they are then in your personal MY FOODS list and can be accessed that way. I started doing that a few years back when I was tracking Potassium, since most entries don't show it and I wanted that. Plus I use grams for measurement exclusively and a lot of the items in the database don't have portions in grams.

    You can also Edit existing items in the database when you find one that's *almost* right. :) Once you do an edit the food is in your MY FOODS list, too.

    It's not a perfect system. It is free though and has by far the most listed foods of any online database. I've looked!
  • Go_Deskercise
    Go_Deskercise Posts: 1,630 Member
    edited July 2020
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    230137isntmyweight wrote: »
    look for the ones with the green checkmarks, as these are actually verified.

    But also can still be incorrect as I've found several!

    No one will do the work for you .... It's up to your to verify that what you are logging is correct.
    If you can't find an entry for what you want to log then its up to you to add it and log it
  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 7,550 Member
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    I found one yesterday for something that should have been calorie laden. But was listed at “-1”.

    All I could do was SMH at the poor self deluding person(s) who might use that one. And you know they’re out there!
  • james_keegan63
    james_keegan63 Posts: 5 Member
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    Can we 'clear' our 'recent' list so that we can start from scratch with only self-verified foods? How can we add a new food (not a recipe, a food) to the database. How can we edit the non-green-check entries? Some people care about things like potassium and iron and b12, and some people don't, how can we make sure that the foods we're choosing for a particular meal have a complete nutritional picture, as compared to those that just have kcal and nothing else?
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,369 Member
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    james_keegan63 wrote: »
    Can we 'clear' our 'recent' list so that we can start from scratch with only self-verified foods? How can we add a new food (not a recipe, a food) to the database. How can we edit the non-green-check entries? Some people care about things like potassium and iron and b12, and some people don't, how can we make sure that the foods we're choosing for a particular meal have a complete nutritional picture, as compared to those that just have kcal and nothing else?

    Depends on whether you're using web/browser MFP or phone/tablet app MFP.

    In the web version:
    * Add a food by picking "Food" on the top menu (displays your diary page), then "My Foods", then "Create Food"
    * Edit an existing food by searching for a food to add to your diary, then click on the food item to select it so it appears in the boxes on the right-hand side, then click "Nutrition Info" over there. When the nutrition displays, find the "Is this information accurate?" and click "No", then click "Edit".

    In the phone/tablet app (Android specifically, but iOS should be similar):
    * Add a food by picking "Recipes, Meals & Foods" from the main drop-down menu, then click foods, then "Create a Food"
    * I don't know how to edit an existing food in the app: Haven't done it.

    I don't know whether you can clear your recent foods, or not.

    You can figure out whether a food has a complete nutritional picture by checking against a more complete source (like the USDA database) the first time you use a food. Yes, that's laborious, but it reaches a point where most of your routine foods are in "Recent". Another option is to log someplace like Cronometer, that approaches this differently (has different pros/cons).
  • wilson10102018
    wilson10102018 Posts: 1,306 Member
    edited July 2020
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    It is because they never go away. Every mistake some yahoo make is preserved forever for you to fight through to find a real entry. A simple computer fix that MFP is too lazy or cheap to fix.
  • sakurablossoms82
    sakurablossoms82 Posts: 62 Member
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    I'm Dutch and a vegetarian and hardly any product I use has the green marker. When I have something new I just scan the barcode and if that isn't correct or it's not listed I make my own listing. Last week I scanned something that was labeled like "Henk's vegan chicken sausage". No idea who Henk is but the one who made the entry might have added that as a reminder. And no Henk isn't a possible brandname
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    james_keegan63 wrote: »
    Can we 'clear' our 'recent' list so that we can start from scratch with only self-verified foods? How can we add a new food (not a recipe, a food) to the database. How can we edit the non-green-check entries? Some people care about things like potassium and iron and b12, and some people don't, how can we make sure that the foods we're choosing for a particular meal have a complete nutritional picture, as compared to those that just have kcal and nothing else?

    MFP doesn't track B12 at all. Only a very limited number of micronutrients are tracked on MFP (due to US labels only requiring a very small number).
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,950 Member
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    Unfortunately, the green check marks in the MFP database can be for both user-created entries and admin-created entries that MFP pulled from the USDA database. To find admin entries for whole foods, I get the syntax from the USDA database and paste that into MFP.

    The USDA changed the platform for their database in 2019 and it is unfortunately a little more difficult to use. I uncheck everything but SR Legacy - that seems to be 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.)
  • jwoolman5
    jwoolman5 Posts: 191 Member
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    I don't know how MFP does it, but on my food tracker (LoseIt, the free version) I use "create a food" almost always so practically all of the foods in my personal database are customized.

    I do this even for simple fruits and veg as well as the packaged foods (which often are not in the database anyway, allergies keep me from many mainstream products and I use weight rather than volume). I uncheck the share with others option so everything stays in my own database on my phone and backed up on their website.

    So I just look online for reliable numbers the first time I add such foods, can identify them in the Food Name and Brand slots just the way I want, and can use the Brand slot to keep notes such as grams per piece or caffeine or if vegan or GF or some ingredients. I also can have some food entries in multiple versions, such as marked by weight (g) and per piece (pc) in the name when both options are useful for me. Plus it's easy to edit my versions when I find mistakes or more often, when the package nutritional info changes. Previous log entries stay the same but new ones use the new info.

    The freebie version for my tracker has limited nutrient slots, so I just use the Cholesterol slot as my iron slot since I eat essentially vegan and don't really need the Cholesterol slot but do like to see how much dietary iron I get. If you want to track a lot more nutrients, it might be worth getting the non-free version of your tracker since those are typically more flexible (more tracking slots). They usually have free trial periods. I think MFP does.

    I also use my food tracker for tracking medications for me and the cats and certain key supplements as well as symptoms and key tasks (some fit in the Exercise portion but many are just kept in the Snacks portion so I can use servings as an easily visible time stamp). I even note when I've let the cats out into the catproof yard (brand name slot: Counting Noses) after a few episodes of a whiny cat complaining that I forgot to let her in before bed ("I could have starved! I could have been eaten by predators! How did I know you were going to lock the door after calling me only 15 times to come in?". Tracking two black cats about the same size in dim lighting can be a challenge.

    This approach might take a little more work when first setting up entries but for me, it makes everything much easier in the long run.

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