The four sources
- Your own figures. Numbers you give ("that was 220 kcal"), a favourite you saved, or a product you added. These always win.
- Product labels. A label photo or a scanned barcode. The label's numbers are used as printed, scaled to your portion.
- The food database. Cal identifies each food and its amount, then looks it up. The database combines UK government food composition data (CoFID), USDA data, foods checked by the CalCoach team, Open Food Facts and products added by members.
- Cal's estimate. Used only for a food the database has no good match for.
For general foods, such as "chicken breast", the composition data is searched first. Open Food Facts and member-added products are mostly used for branded and packaged foods.
The same food logs the same
The numbers are worked out from the database, not written by Cal. That means:
- The same message logs the same numbers every time.
- Twice the amount gives exactly twice the numbers.
- Logging three foods separately adds up to the same as logging them together.
Foods you log often are matched to the product you usually have.
Seeing which source a log used
Tap Adjust on a log, then Edit ingredients. Ingredients matched to the food database show a flag icon. Ingredients without one came from your own figures, a label or an estimate.
Reporting wrong food data
If a database food has the wrong numbers or is the wrong product:
- On the log card, open the ⋮ menu and tap Report data. This option appears when the log uses database foods.
- Or, in Edit ingredients, tap the flag on the ingredient. Choose Wrong nutrition, Wrong product or Something else, add a note if you like, and tap Submit report.
Reported foods are reviewed, and Cal stops matching them automatically in the meantime.
To fix your own log straight away, tell Cal the right numbers. See Edit or delete a log.