Barcode scanning

Barcode scanning looks the product up in the Open Food Facts and Edamam databases and returns the real label data. It uses no AI at all, and it's free and unlimited.

This is worth being explicit about, because it's the opposite of what people assume. When you scan a barcode you are not getting an estimate — you are getting the manufacturer's own declared nutrition information, the same numbers printed on the box.

When a barcode isn't found

Not every product is in those databases, particularly store brands and food outside North America and Europe. When a scan comes back empty, photograph the nutrition label instead: the AI reads a label far more reliably than it estimates a cooked meal, because the numbers are right there.

Why scan at all if AI is faster

Accuracy. For anything with a label, the label is the ground truth and no estimate will beat it. Save the AI for food that never had a label.