How to Submit New or Updated Foods

If you scan a barcode that MacroFactor doesn’t recognize, or if a food you scan has outdated nutrition information, you can submit those new or updated food entries to the OpenFoodFacts database through MacroFactor. This will not only make the new or updated food available for you to log – it also benefits other MacroFactor users. This is allowing our database coverage to expand rapidly, in all areas around the world.

We’d highly recommend using the label scanner to significantly speed up this process.

To submit a food to OpenFoodFacts from within the app:

1. Tap the "+" button near the bottom of the screen

2. Tap "New Food"

3. Ensure you have consented to submitting your foods to the public food database by tapping the slider at the bottom of the screen

4. Select the custom food creation option you’d like to use, whether that is “Build from Scratch” or “Import with AI,” then tap “Next”

If using the Build from Scratch option:

1. Enter the food details, including the food icon, food name, brand name, and barcode, if applicable

2. Enter the serving information based on the product packaging

3. Enter the nutrition information based on the product packaging

4. Review the information, then tap “Create” or “Create & Add”

If using the Import with AI option:

1. Capture or upload a photo of the front of the product and the nutrition label

2. Tap “Analyze” when you’re ready

3. Review the information generated from the image, and make any needed edits, just as you would during the normal custom food creation workflow

4. Tap on "Create" or "Create & Add"

Some users ask: "Which foods are considered for submission?" To be considered, the food item must have:

1. A brand name

2. Food name

3. A barcode

4. Serving weight or volume

5. Calories and macros

Before submission, all foods are automatically validated for sufficient data quality. This helps ensure that user submissions have accurate nutrition information. For instance, if you created a custom food with 100 Calories and 300 grams of protein, it would be flagged as likely having incorrect nutrition information, so it wouldn’t be submitted to the database.

Read next:

Label Scanner

Create and Add a Custom Food

Create and Add a Custom Recipe