We have defaulted to using the standard database for all users. It’s faster, has more common and branded foods, and offers more functionality. The legacy database and search service belong to another company. This means that we have no control over it – we can’t add foods, address outages, fix broken foods, add regional servers, optimize the search service, or optimize any operational components of the offering.
When using the standard database, the branded foods in the legacy database are still available as a backup while barcode scanning, and the common foods in the legacy database are still available in AI describe. As a result, you are getting the best of both worlds when you use the standard database.
Standard Database Exclusive
We expand on the variety of serving options, deriving when possible: grams, pounds, ounces, milliliters, cups, fluid ounces, teaspoons, and tablespoons.
The search service is more typo tolerant, 2-4 times faster, backed by regionally distributed servers, and armed with intelligence that surfaces better results for your queries.
We can display macronutrients directly on the search results.
We are actively scouting new sources to add to the standard database and will be improving it further and further.
Comparison
Search: The standard database has around 1,360,000 verified food items accessible via search, while the legacy database has around 1,040,000 verified food items accessible via search.
Barcodes: All branded products in both databases are accessible via barcode scanning.
Common foods with robust micronutrient reporting: Around 26,500 items in the standard database are micronutrient complete common foods sourced from research databases, compared to 10,000 in the legacy database.
All common food items in the legacy database are still accessible via AI Describe when you switch over to the standard database; the common foods in the standard database are not accessible in the legacy database.
In the standard database, a large part of that common food count comes from the NCC Food and Nutrient Database, a “premier food and nutrient database that is relied on heavily by the scientific community.”
Regional support: The standard database has extensive support for branded foods in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, with better international coverage overall. The legacy database offers comprehensive coverage for the US and Canada specifically.
Visual differences: The standard database represents foods using icons, and the legacy database represents foods using images. The images aren’t available on all food items, which can lead to a large number of placeholders. Those images won’t always be up-to-date for branded items, and they aren’t dark mode compliant.
Timeline
Users who are new to MacroFactor will start out using the standard database. Users who first joined MacroFactor before 2022 will have started out using the legacy database. 1.2.4 is the specific release that marks this point.
Read next:
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How to Configure Your Food Logger