Beware - Errors in database info - Doubdiary!

Hrtnrse
Hrtnrse Posts: 12 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Fellow Fitness Pals,

Today I checked some of the nutritional information on the food packaging against what is listed when I "add" to my food diary from the searchable database. I found NUMEROUS errors. Not sure where the database info comes from. I assumed it was all input by MFP personnel and verifiable. Not so.

I happened to notice on the FAQ page that all members have the ability to make corrections to the database items so it occurred to me that information might not be totally correct.....and this is the case.

Most of the time, the calories are correct but it seems most everything else is hit or miss.

I found errors regarding:
1. S content (it seems some just assume all carbs are sugar)
2. Rounding up for information that should include decimals. For instance, if the product listed 0.5 g fat, the database listed 1 g. This is particularly a bummer for small servings that may be used several times a day, like offer creamer.
3. Severral "n/a" in places where the correct information should be. This happened a lot for the vitamin listings. So bummed, All this time, I thought my wine didn't contain carbs!

To remedy this for myself, I'm double checking all of my commonly used foods and using the "Create a New Food" function more often.

I still love this app....I just started last week and have lost nearly 5 lbs.......but I'm more cautious with my food diary.

Have a great...and healthy day!

Heartnurse

P.s. Sorry for the "Doubdiary" in the title. It's supposed to say "Double check your diary". But alas, my fingers hit the "submit" button mid-editing and the program will not let me change it. I am a blog rookie for sure!
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Replies

  • elanaknt
    elanaknt Posts: 40 Member
    In the Terms of Service for the app I noticed that users can submit information and was a bit concerned. I've only been using this for a few days but I find it easier on my slightly obsessive personailty to just pick the big few I am really concerned about (cals, fat, carbs, sugar, fiber, protein) and make sure those are correct. If in doubt, resort to the scanner (LOVE this feature!). Thanks for posting a heads-up!
  • Crochetluvr
    Crochetluvr Posts: 3,240 Member
    Thanks for the heads up! I wont put a food in the database unless I have the package to list the proper nutritional amounts. If there is something missing, I dont put 0....I leave it blank. And I think some believe you cant adjust the decimals. I have changed amounts I have eaten to .75 at times and the program calculates the amount perfectly.
  • Hrtnrse
    Hrtnrse Posts: 12 Member
    If in doubt, resort to the scanner (LOVE this feature!). Thanks for posting a heads-up!
    [/quote]

    How do I get the scanner?
  • Hrtnrse
    Hrtnrse Posts: 12 Member
    The scanner sounds great! How do I get it?
  • devonette
    devonette Posts: 263 Member
    I do not own a cell phone, so I can't use the scanner feature.

    I've added foods to the mfp database using the info from the nutrition information on the side of commercially available packages. The one problem I have with adding foods to the database from my own recipes so that other family members can use it is that I can only see the information for the 6 nutritional components that I've chosen to show in my diary, and not the rest. Apparently people who use smart phones can see all nutritional information, but those of us on computers can't, so I'm unable to add info for those I don't track, like sugar, fiber, type of fat, etc., because I honestly have no clue -- it doesn't show on mine.
  • devonette
    devonette Posts: 263 Member
    Oh, I also wanted to add that you can't always trust the nutrition info provided by restaurant chains. For example, I recently got a sandwich from Cosi. Their official website listed the calories as 527 for that sandwich (listed as weighing 11.5 ounces), as well as other nutritional info, which is exactly what someone entered into the database, so that's what I put in my journal. The next time I got the sandwich, I weighed it first, and it came to almost 16 ounces! I then deconstructed it, and weighed the various components, and the chicken alone was 8 ounces, the bread was 5 ounces, the cheese was 2.5 ounces, and so on. So the 527calorie sandwich I had allowed for was actually about 250 - 300 calories more!
  • bethmillerwilson
    bethmillerwilson Posts: 43 Member
    The scanner feature is for iphone. You can use your phone to scan the bar code of the food item and the nutritional info is then put into mfp. The blackberry app doesn't have this, I am not sure about the android app.
  • laurensayz
    laurensayz Posts: 67 Member
    When are you using MFP on the computer, you can click and see if it has been 'confirmed' by other users. I usually do my log from my computer, so I like that. The ones with confirmations are more accurate than not. If I'm using the phone app, I look at all of them until I find the one that has a calorie match to whatever I am holding in my hand. I don't mind if its a few off. A few calories is not a life or death situation to me. Now, if it were off by say 50+ I might would reconsider adding it in myself if I could not find the appropriate one.
  • ilikepandasyay
    ilikepandasyay Posts: 96 Member
    The scanner feature is for iphone. You can use your phone to scan the bar code of the food item and the nutritional info is then put into mfp. The blackberry app doesn't have this, I am not sure about the android app.

    Android app has it too! Very useful :)
  • ZombieSlayer
    ZombieSlayer Posts: 369 Member
    I do not own a cell phone, so I can't use the scanner feature.

    I've added foods to the mfp database using the info from the nutrition information on the side of commercially available packages. The one problem I have with adding foods to the database from my own recipes so that other family members can use it is that I can only see the information for the 6 nutritional components that I've chosen to show in my diary, and not the rest. Apparently people who use smart phones can see all nutritional information, but those of us on computers can't, so I'm unable to add info for those I don't track, like sugar, fiber, type of fat, etc., because I honestly have no clue -- it doesn't show on mine.

    For the recipes - My trick is to use SparkRecipes.com, recipe builder. It gives you ALL the nutritional information (including some you can't add on MFP at all).
  • becon1022
    becon1022 Posts: 39
    when you go to add on your cell phone on the right side of the search bar there is a bar code app touch that then hold the bar code up like you going to take a pic of it very easy i bar code everything usually
  • ucsneakerz
    ucsneakerz Posts: 25 Member
    If you want to scan an item go through the same process you would to enter anything else, then when you would enter your food title in "search for food" you will see a blue bar code looking icon just to the right of where you would enter search times, tap the barcode icon and you'll be able to use it using your cell phones camera. Like mentioned above, this is a feature that only comes with the smart phone version of MFP.

    As far as the accuracy of the database foods, its totally true that some are mistaken. When you are selecting a food using the computer version of the program you can see how many times the information has been confirmed. So, when in doubt, its always safer to pick the food that has been confirmed by a good number of people. If you pick one that has only been entered by one person you are relying on that one person's accuracy of entering it.
  • UsedToBeHusky
    UsedToBeHusky Posts: 15,228 Member
    The database allows the users to make corrections. I implore you to use this option as there are already many duplicate entries in the database.
  • becon1022
    becon1022 Posts: 39
    theres a multi-add tap above the search bar so you dont have to go in & out just scan or pick from your stored list your whole meal then when done hit add. if you touch a food item on your cell phone then it'll take you to the page to change serving also when you scan something before you add it you can change serving size
  • Hoakiebs
    Hoakiebs Posts: 430 Member
    If in doubt, resort to the scanner (LOVE this feature!). Thanks for posting a heads-up!

    How do I get the scanner?
    [/quote]
    You can download it to a smartphone, iProduct (must have camera).
  • Hrtnrse
    Hrtnrse Posts: 12 Member
    Yay! Thanks to all of you, I have learned how to scan food items and check the "confirmed" nutritional information. I've tried both features and I am so happy. The scanner worked great and I'm happy to see that many of my usual foods have been confirmed.

    Thanks Pals!

    P.s. I see that many of you have done really well with your weight loss! Nice to know I'm getting good advice from people who are making it work so well! Hope to be among you soon.
  • tolygal
    tolygal Posts: 602 Member
    Sometimes I cannot bear to see that I have surpassed my daily calorie allotment, so I edit the info on some foods, lowering the calorie amounts. It helps me feel better about what I ate. I'm sorry if it causes anyone else problems.

    Am I reading this correctly? Are you saying that you edit a food in the database to enter wrong nutritional data? Which would mean that every other user who uses that item either has to re-edit it or they get wrong data in their own diary? I sure hope I read that wrong. Either that or I hope you are joking - I can't tell.
  • Hrtnrse
    Hrtnrse Posts: 12 Member
    Sometimes I cannot bear to see that I have surpassed my daily calorie allotment, so I edit the info on some foods, lowering the calorie amounts. It helps me feel better about what I ate. I'm sorry if it causes anyone else problems.
    Well this site is for support no matter what so if it makes you feel better thats all that matters!
    Thank you for understanding. I don't know why people have to bully me about editing the food database. :angry:

    They obviously need a lesson in the meaning of this site,we must unconditionaly support everyone ALL.THE.TIME.

    I support your decision here. It works especially well for pizza. I ate a whole pizza and it was only 300 calories. True story.

    We have all been there! Lol!
  • bethmac_va
    bethmac_va Posts: 65
    Unless I can scan my food, if I am in doubt, I check other websites for calorie content, then come back to MFP to find the closest thing that matches. I find that nutritiondata.self.com is pretty reliable, as is calorieking.com. For me, as long as the calorie, protein, carb and fat contents are reasonably accurate, I don't worry about the other nutrients on occasion.
  • ae2rigc
    ae2rigc Posts: 37
    Unless I can scan my food,
    Scanning doesn't make it accurate, only identifies the product and pulls from the database. So if someone has entered incorrectly or some tool has edited it to be incorrect, you'll get that incorrect data.

    I had a thing scan that had carbs out by a factor of 10 today, input with wrong decimal. Yesterday, had something where kcals were actually the kj so read higher.
  • bethmac_va
    bethmac_va Posts: 65
    Unless I can scan my food,
    Scanning doesn't make it accurate,

    Oh, well OK, thanks! I didn't realize that.
  • ZombieSlayer
    ZombieSlayer Posts: 369 Member
    Unless I can scan my food,
    Scanning doesn't make it accurate, only identifies the product and pulls from the database. So if someone has entered incorrectly or some tool has edited it to be incorrect, you'll get that incorrect data.

    I had a thing scan that had carbs out by a factor of 10 today, input with wrong decimal. Yesterday, had something where kcals were actually the kj so read higher.

    Heh. I scanned my birthday cheesecake yesterday (new smartphone too) and MFP came up with Tyson Chicken Wings. Not!
  • cutethang1
    cutethang1 Posts: 239 Member
    Editing can be tricky especially when there are different values for the exact same products in Canada vs the U.S. even the serving sizes can be the same but the values will be different. It almost catches me everytime unless I actually compare it to the label. I dont scan for the reasons stated in pp.
  • devonette
    devonette Posts: 263 Member
    I do not own a cell phone, so I can't use the scanner feature.

    I've added foods to the mfp database using the info from the nutrition information on the side of commercially available packages. The one problem I have with adding foods to the database from my own recipes so that other family members can use it is that I can only see the information for the 6 nutritional components that I've chosen to show in my diary, and not the rest. Apparently people who use smart phones can see all nutritional information, but those of us on computers can't, so I'm unable to add info for those I don't track, like sugar, fiber, type of fat, etc., because I honestly have no clue -- it doesn't show on mine.

    For the recipes - My trick is to use SparkRecipes.com, recipe builder. It gives you ALL the nutritional information (including some you can't add on MFP at all).

    Ooooh, good to know! Thanks for the tip. Is SparkRecipes something you have to join, or can anyone use it?
  • ZombieSlayer
    ZombieSlayer Posts: 369 Member
    For the recipes - My trick is to use SparkRecipes.com, recipe builder. It gives you ALL the nutritional information (including some you can't add on MFP at all).

    Ooooh, good to know! Thanks for the tip. Is SparkRecipes something you have to join, or can anyone use it?

    You have to join, but it's completely free.
  • UsedToBeHusky
    UsedToBeHusky Posts: 15,228 Member
    Unless I can scan my food,
    Scanning doesn't make it accurate, only identifies the product and pulls from the database. So if someone has entered incorrectly or some tool has edited it to be incorrect, you'll get that incorrect data.

    I had a thing scan that had carbs out by a factor of 10 today, input with wrong decimal. Yesterday, had something where kcals were actually the kj so read higher.

    I was under the impression that the nutrition facts were in the bar code. If you scan, you will notice that the description is often exact complete with TM logo. You can't find that if you just do a regular search in the database.
  • bethmac_va
    bethmac_va Posts: 65
    Unless I can scan my food,
    Scanning doesn't make it accurate, only identifies the product and pulls from the database. So if someone has entered incorrectly or some tool has edited it to be incorrect, you'll get that incorrect data.

    I had a thing scan that had carbs out by a factor of 10 today, input with wrong decimal. Yesterday, had something where kcals were actually the kj so read higher.

    I was under the impression that the nutrition facts were in the bar code. If you scan, you will notice that the description is often exact complete with TM logo. You can't find that if you just do a regular search in the database.

    That's what I thought too... :ohwell:
  • squiggle82
    squiggle82 Posts: 4
    Sometimes I cannot bear to see that I have surpassed my daily calorie allotment, so I edit the info on some foods, lowering the calorie amounts. It helps me feel better about what I ate. I'm sorry if it causes anyone else problems.

    Am I reading this correctly? Are you saying that you edit a food in the database to enter wrong nutritional data? Which would mean that every other user who uses that item either has to re-edit it or they get wrong data in their own diary? I sure hope I read that wrong. Either that or I hope you are joking - I can't tell.

    ...I use the scan function and it's not always accurate so I double check and almost every day I find entries that are wrong, from the calorie count to the sodium content - I always edit them so that my diary is as accurate as possible. To change them to make your diary look better is cheating a little, is it not? Even if my numbers are red (right now I'm over my carbs) I wouldn't go editing anything cause I'd only be cheating myself.

    Edited to add that no, the scan function isn't always accurate. I scanned frozen fruit from Asda and it brought up frozen fruit from Sainsbury's. It does that quite a lot. Then, if I actually search for what I'm trying to add I'll sometimes find it already entered. The scan function is usefull but it is a little hit and miss.
  • ae2rigc
    ae2rigc Posts: 37
    Bar code is just a number, it stores no information at all, just the number.
    The number identifies a product (hence why it's called a UPC - Universal Product Code)
    What information is stored about that product is entirely dependant on what the back end database holds about that product.

    Doesn't matter if it's the MFP DB (that holds nutrient info) or Walmart's stock control DB (that could hold, costs, stock, shelf location, lead times for new orders, historical order data, etc etc etc), the data that's presented comes from a database, not from the barcode.
  • wolfi622
    wolfi622 Posts: 206
    The scanner still pulls data from the same database, so it can just as easily be wrong. I believe if you correct calories on your own diary after you have entered the item, whether it be with adjusting the serving or the calories, that it does not change the database. That is only done through the verification pop up window.

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