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Creating Custom Foods

Sometimes the food you're eating can't practically be found in a database. If it's a homemade recipe from a friend, a local bakery item, or or you don't have internet access, that's when you create a custom food.

When to Create a Custom Food

  • You can't find the food in search or Open Food Facts
  • You have a nutrition label and want to enter the values yourself
  • You want a personalized entry for something you eat regularly

Step by Step

1. Open the Food Edit Screen

From the Search screen, tap the Create Food button to open a blank Food Edit screen.

Create Food button on Search screen

Food Creation Screen

2. Name Your Food

Give it a name you'll recognize when searching later. The app will auto-suggest an emoji based on the name — a fun touch that also makes foods easier to spot in lists.

3. Enter Nutrition Information

You have two ways to enter macros:

Enter the nutrition values for one serving of the food. This is the most common approach when you're reading a nutrition label.

For example, if a protein bar's label says 210 calories, 20g protein, 8g fat, 15g carbs per bar — enter those values and define a serving called "1 bar" at 65g. Similarly, if a package of cookies has a serving size of "3 cookies", then the Qty could be 3, the unit could be "cookie", and so on.

Enter the nutrition values for 100 grams of the food. This works well for bulk ingredients you'll always weigh on a scale, like chicken breast or rice.

4. Define Serving Sizes

A serving is just a named weight — "1 bar" = 65g, "1 tbsp" = 15g, "1 cup" = 240g. You can add as many as you like.

Good serving definitions make logging faster, because you can tap a dropdown and pick "1 cup" instead of remembering that a cup weighs 240 grams.

Serving size examples

  • Protein bar: One serving = "1 bar" at 65g. You enter macros for the whole bar.
  • Homemade hummus: Define "1 tbsp" at 15g and "1 cup" at 240g. Enter macros for whichever you measured.
  • Bulk chicken breast: Just use per-100g mode and weigh it each time.

5. Add a Photo (Optional)

You can attach a photo to help you recognize the food at a glance. The app automatically resizes images to keep things fast.

6. Add Barcodes (Optional)

If the food has a barcode, you can scan it and attach it to your custom food. Next time you scan that barcode, your custom entry will come up automatically.

7. Save

Tap Save to add the food to your personal library. It will appear at the top of future search results (gray background).

Save & Use

If you're creating a food in the middle of logging a meal, tap Save & Use to save the food and immediately add it to your Log Queue — no need to search for it again.

Math in Number Fields

You can type math expressions in any number field on this screen. This is handy when nutrition labels give you awkward numbers:

  • A label says "about 2.5 servings per container" and you ate the whole thing? Enter value * 2.5 in the appropriate field.
  • Need to convert? Type the expression directly instead of reaching for a calculator.