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Foods : Entering and analyzing recipes (FAQs)

Recipes are entered following a few simple rules showed in the yellow box on the recipe pages. The most important rule is to always start with quantity, then follow with unit, and then finally identify the ingredient.

After clicking on "Analyze Recipe," you will find out if we were able to link up your ingredients with items in our food database. This is shown in the lower right corner, and displayed in the form of three flags:

• Green flag: ingredient found and sized
• Yellow flag: ingredient found, but could not size
• Red flag: ingredient not found

In the case of a yellow flag, check your unit and either review its naming/abbreviation, or convert to a different unit. In the case of a red flag, try specifying a more general ingredient or other ones that might have the same nutritional properties. If you cannot get all entries properly identified and sized, you can still submit a partially analyzed recipe for viewing purposes, and then add the missing items manually into your food log in order to account for all nutritional facts.

You can choose to save recipes for future reference, or to simply enter them into your food log without the ability to access them later in the recipe section. Currently, the food log will only accept the serving size of one, which means that if your recipe serves 4, the nutritional values entered into your food log will reflect a quarter of your recipe. If you need larger serving sizes, you will need to re-enter the recipe.

If you choose to save your recipe, you will be asked to provide its description, preparation directions and to assign properties to it, which will make it easier for you and others find it in our database.

Added 2007-06-03 22:32:33
Updated 2007-06-03 22:33:04

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