Correcting Database
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DougieHD
Posts: 9 Member
Hi fellow MFPers
I've seen lots of posts about database inaccuracies and I am sure this has been asked before but I haven't seen a clear answer.
When we report inaccurate foods, wrong nutritional information etc, does it actually get corrected?
I see so many errors and have got into the habit of scrolling down and reporting it; also duplicate and triplicate entries. But I don't know if it does actually get done or if I am just wasting time.
Does anyone know?
Thanks
I've seen lots of posts about database inaccuracies and I am sure this has been asked before but I haven't seen a clear answer.
When we report inaccurate foods, wrong nutritional information etc, does it actually get corrected?
I see so many errors and have got into the habit of scrolling down and reporting it; also duplicate and triplicate entries. But I don't know if it does actually get done or if I am just wasting time.
Does anyone know?
Thanks
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Replies
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Hi fellow MFPers
I've seen lots of posts about database inaccuracies and I am sure this has been asked before but I haven't seen a clear answer.
When we report inaccurate foods, wrong nutritional information etc, does it actually get corrected?
I see so many errors and have got into the habit of scrolling down and reporting it; also duplicate and triplicate entries. But I don't know if it does actually get done or if I am just wasting time.
Does anyone know?
Thanks
Don't report it (I'm not even sure how you're doing that). Fix it. On the website, click on the nutritional information for a database entry, then click "no" where it asks you if the information is correct, and then click the button to edit the information.3 -
lynn_glenmont wrote: »
Don't report it (I'm not even sure how you're doing that). Fix it. On the website, click on the nutritional information for a database entry, then click "no" where it asks you if the information is correct, and then click the button to edit the information.
Yes that's what I'm doing; clicking on the "report food" button, correcting spelling, correcting names, correcting nutrition info where I can. However
- portions cannot be corrected so if that is wrong, or meaningless like "plate", I cannot correct it.
- I cannot delete duplicates or triplicates, only report them. Unless you can suggest a way?
Thanks4 -
Hi fellow MFPers
I've seen lots of posts about database inaccuracies and I am sure this has been asked before but I haven't seen a clear answer.
When we report inaccurate foods, wrong nutritional information etc, does it actually get corrected?
I see so many errors and have got into the habit of scrolling down and reporting it; also duplicate and triplicate entries. But I don't know if it does actually get done or if I am just wasting time.
Does anyone know?
Thanks
This is what I do. I will compare what I find in the database, to what I am looking at, or go to the USDA website and compare what I am looking at to that. I also have an extensive database of foods I input myself, that I, and only I, can correct at anytime, because I don't share them with the MFP database. I only do this; because, in the past I came across several entries that had been changed. One of the things I track is potassium. The FDA, and this fact is easily Googleable, now requires food labels to show potassium in mgs instead of percentages. Not every food label has caught up, and MFP database certainly has not. Since I track said micronutrient, I go in and simply edit my entries.
Yes this takes time and patience, and, no, I do not eat the same things. I have gotten really fast at it. It gives me peace of mind. Now having said all that, and written a novella, at the same time, there are a lot of entries that are correct, etc. in th MFP database!!0 -
Don't forget, MFP is used all over the world - what seems inaccurate to you might be correct in another country. Manufacturers use different "recipes" and portion sizes to suit different situations. Just do your best, create your own versions and use the per 100g entries where available. Don't get frustrated by it, don't waste your energy.
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Hi fellow MFPers
I've seen lots of posts about database inaccuracies and I am sure this has been asked before but I haven't seen a clear answer.
When we report inaccurate foods, wrong nutritional information etc, does it actually get corrected?
I see so many errors and have got into the habit of scrolling down and reporting it; also duplicate and triplicate entries. But I don't know if it does actually get done or if I am just wasting time.
Does anyone know?
Thanks
This is what I do. I will compare what I find in the database, to what I am looking at, or go to the USDA website and compare what I am looking at to that. I also have an extensive database of foods I input myself, that I, and only I, can correct at anytime, because I don't share them with the MFP database. I only do this; because, in the past I came across several entries that had been changed. One of the things I track is potassium. The FDA, and this fact is easily Googleable, now requires food labels to show potassium in mgs instead of percentages. Not every food label has caught up, and MFP database certainly has not. Since I track said micronutrient, I go in and simply edit my entries.
Yes this takes time and patience, and, no, I do not eat the same things. I have gotten really fast at it. It gives me peace of mind. Now having said all that, and written a novella, at the same time, there are a lot of entries that are correct, etc. in th MFP database!!
Yep. ^^This, and once you edit it - it is then in your list of MY FOODS, so pretty easy to find again.2 -
...and no, they don't actually get changed just because you Report them.
Tens of millions of database entries. No company has the personnel for that.
3 -
The ones you cannot edit are MFP admin entries. I used to report these to Support, but the process was so frustrating, annoying, and unproductive I stopped.
For example, the admin entry for "kale, raw" (and several other foods) has no calories:
There are many entries that give values for 1 gram when it is actually 100 grams.
Many entries for SOLID foods give values in LIQUID measurements like millilitres rather than weights.
For a long time, off and on we had an issue with one clove of garlic being hundreds of calories. Looks like they've "fixed" that by removing the admin entry >.<
Still, I can spot these issues easily enough and do prefer admin entries to user-entered.
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. To find admin entries for whole foods, I get the syntax from the USDA database and paste that into MFP.
https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
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.)2 -
lesdarts180 wrote: »Don't forget, MFP is used all over the world - what seems inaccurate to you might be correct in another country. Manufacturers use different "recipes" and portion sizes to suit different situations. Just do your best, create your own versions and use the per 100g entries where available. Don't get frustrated by it, don't waste your energy.
Oh yes I learned that very quickly. I live in Sri Lanka and the international brand products here often have different nutritional mixes to elsewhere. Some come from India, some are produced here, but a lot of them have nutritional values different to what is in the database.0 -
So the problem with correcting it that I have found is that it doesn't take region into account. The same food with the same name and brand might have different nutritional info in the USA as it does in Canada or Australia, or Germany, or Philippines, etc. But honestly... whenever I DO correct something that specifies Canada, I can never find the corrected food after. I dont think it works. It works better to make a new food and share it with only me.0
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So the problem with correcting it that I have found is that it doesn't take region into account. The same food with the same name and brand might have different nutritional info in the USA as it does in Canada or Australia, or Germany, or Philippines, etc. But honestly... whenever I DO correct something that specifies Canada, I can never find the corrected food after. I dont think it works. It works better to make a new food and share it with only me.
The updated food is supposed to go into My Foods. For a while this wasn't working, but last time I checked I did see new foods at the end of My Foods when sorted by Default.2 -
If something has a serving size like "plate," it's inherently not a good entry. Rather than trying to fix that one, you'd be better off to search for a more reliable entry.
For whole foods, follow kshama's advice above. For anything packaged, check your package information, as often the specifics of a packaged item change over time or are different in different countries.0 -
I don't understand people who are saying you can't change the portion/serving size. I do it all the time, including changing the units of the serving size (especially for packaged foods previously listed as "1 bowl" or "1 burrito"). I usually only do this when it's a 6 or 8 year-old entry that has never been confirmed by anyone and there are other similarly named entries that aren't right either; I figure the odds are extremely low the person who created is still using it, or anyone else.
Are you all using the app to edit database entries? I use the website when I want to edit an entry, so maybe you can only do it on the website.0
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