What if a food's nutrition data is wrong or missing?

Foods in the Foodnoms database come from three kinds of sources, and the way to fix an issue depends on the source.

Where the Data Comes From

Generic foods come from FoodData Central, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's reference food composition database. Its values are measured in the lab or calculated from lab-analyzed foods, and the same data underpins nutrition research and many other food databases. Generic foods describe a typical example of a food, so an individual item can naturally vary a little.

Restaurant foods come from nutrition information published by the restaurants themselves, such as their websites and nutrition guides.

Branded foods build on manufacturer-published data from FoodData Central, with community submissions filling gaps and correcting errors.

Correcting a Branded Food

If a branded food looks wrong, open it and select Make a correction to fix it for yourself and other users. Corrections are reviewed before they're shared.

Corrections apply going forward. Entries you've already logged keep the values from when you logged them.

Overriding a Generic or Restaurant Food

Generic and restaurant foods don't accept corrections, since their values come straight from the USDA's laboratory data or from what the restaurant publishes.

To use your own values instead, select Save to Library on the food, then edit your copy. The copy is yours alone: it isn't shared with other users or submitted to the Foodnoms database for review.

Adding a Missing Food

If a food is missing entirely, you can create it yourself by scanning its nutrition label or entering the details manually.