How to use the Food Diary

Use the Food Diary to record foods, drinks, nutrition products, portions and notes over one or more days. When a food has suitable nutrition information and a reliable portion, the diary can calculate nutrients for your dietitian to review.

The diary supports dietetic care. It does not diagnose a condition, provide emergency advice or replace advice from your healthcare team.

Never share your sign-in code with another person.

1. Open the Client Food Diary and choose Start free Client Food Diary.
2. Enter your email address and choose Send sign-in code.
3. Check that inbox, including Junk or Spam, for the latest six-digit code.
4. Enter the code once. Codes expire and an already-used code will not work again.

1. Choose Create food diary profile.
2. Enter a name or label that helps you recognise the diary.
3. Check your region, locale and time zone.
4. Choose kJ, kcal, or kJ and kcal; then choose Metric or US customary display units.
5. Optionally add your dietitian’s email address, check it carefully, and save.

One consumer profile is currently supported per signed-in account. Deleting the profile also permanently deletes its saved diary days and entries after a warning.

The selected local calendar date is preserved. Entry times and a configurable first day of the week are not currently available.

1. Choose the date on which the food or drink was consumed.
2. Add and review entries for that date.
3. Change the date to record another day or revisit an earlier day.

Use Drink for drinks outside a meal and Other when no other label fits. Custom occasion names are not currently available.

• Breakfast
• Morning snack
• Lunch
• Afternoon snack
• Dinner
• Supper
• Drink
• Other

Results are ranked for relevance and are not an exhaustive browse list. Similar names may describe different preparations.

1. Type at least two characters of the food, product or brand name.
2. If useful, filter to everyday foods, United States foods, nutrition products or saved labels.
3. Check the food name, source, category, preparation, available portions and any completeness warning.
4. Choose the result that best matches what was actually eaten or drunk.

Source labels tell you where the food information came from. The source is not a quality score: the correct result is the record whose description, preparation and portion best match what was consumed.

Everyday food / AUSNUT means Australian food-composition data. Match the complete description and preparation—for example raw, cooked or drained—to the food eaten.

USDA Foundation records are foundational United States food-composition foods. Household measures retain their verified source gram weights rather than being assumed to use an Australian measure.

USDA FNDDS contains United States foods and dishes used in dietary survey data. Check the dish description and supplied measure carefully.

Formulary results are enteral feeds, oral nutrition supplements and formula products. Match the exact product, preparation and nutrient basis.

A saved product label is a packaged-food record maintained in the app's product-label catalogue. It is different from a live barcode lookup. Check the brand, product name, serving information and current packet before selecting it.

A packet label may list only energy, macronutrients and selected nutrients. Nutrients not printed on the label may be unavailable rather than zero, so the record may not provide a complete micronutrient profile.

A clinician-created food is a private custom-food record owned by the signed-in clinician account. It appears in search only when the clinician already has a suitable active record.

Clients cannot create or manage clinician-created foods in the Client Food Diary. Ask the clinician if a custom food needs to be added or corrected.

Food source choices are saved for the account and apply to new searches across patients and meals. Turning a source off does not remove or recalculate foods already saved in the diary.

Select all enables every available source. Clear all means no new food-search results will appear until at least one source is selected. Open Food Facts is used for barcode lookup only, not ordinary text search.

USDA Foundation and FNDDS are available, but USDA Branded Foods are not. Some otherwise correct food records have only a partial nutrient profile.

• Try a shorter name, brand, main ingredient or preparation method.
• Return the source filter to All.
• Try barcode lookup for a packaged food.
• After a zero-result search, use Couldn’t find this food to send a privacy-safe request.
• If necessary, record a clear free-text description and amount; it may be excluded from calculated nutrients.

Camera availability depends on the device, browser and permission settings. Packaged-food information can be incomplete or outdated, so the packet is the information to check.

1. Choose Scan barcode and allow camera permission when asked.
2. Hold the printed barcode inside the scanner in good light.
3. Compare the returned name, brand, package, serving and nutrition values with the packet.
4. Choose This matches my packet only when the details agree.
5. Choose the amount consumed and save the entry.

1. Enter only the digits printed below the barcode.
2. Use a common retail code containing 8, 12, 13 or 14 digits.
3. Choose Find and verify the result against the packet.
4. Reject a wrong product and search manually instead.

Only nutrients supplied by the product record are available. The client screen does not currently include a full manual nutrition-label editor, and free text is not a nutrient panel.

• Grams (g): weighed solid foods.
• Millilitres (mL): measured liquids and prepared feed volume.
• Serving: use when the source provides a verified serving size.

Use a household volume only when the selected food has a reliable mass, volume or density conversion. Do not assume every food has the same gram weight per cup or spoon.

• Ounces (oz) and pounds (lb) are solid-food weight choices prioritised in US mode.
• US fluid ounces (US fl oz) measure liquid volume and are not the same as solid ounces.

Slices, items, scoops and similar choices appear only when the source provides a verified measure. If none is available, use weighed grams, measured millilitres or a reliable label serving.

Enter whole or decimal quantities such as 1, 0.5 or 1.5. For a source measure, the quantity means the number of those measures; the verified grams and/or millilitres are shown when available.

Metric mode prioritises g and mL. US mode prioritises oz, lb and US fl oz. Changing display mode converts at the screen boundary and does not repeatedly alter the underlying saved grams or millilitres.

A free-text amount can be saved for context, but the diary excludes it from nutrient analysis when a reliable mass or volume cannot be resolved. Replace it with a verified measure when possible.

1. Choose the date and meal occasion.
2. Select the matching food or verify a barcode product.
3. Enter the amount and choose a portion or unit.
4. Add useful preparation, brand, leftover, appetite or symptom notes without unnecessary identifying information.
5. Review the calculation warning, save, and confirm the entry appears under the correct date.

There is no in-place Edit button in the current client diary. Check the replacement information, delete only the incorrect entry, and add it again correctly.

1. Open the correct date.
2. Choose Delete on the incorrect entry only.
3. Check that the day list and totals update.

Record each food or ingredient separately under one meal occasion, then choose Save this meal as a Usual Meal. Name the complete template and review which foods to include. Mixed everyday, USDA, Formulary and verified barcode foods can stay together in one template.

Later, choose Add to diary, select the target diary date and meal occasion, then review quantities and remove any component you do not want. The selected target date is where every included food will be recorded. Choose Add N foods to diary to create normal independent entries, and the diary opens that date so you can review them. Add another food through the usual entry form when needed.

Changing or deleting a Usual Meal template affects future use only. It does not alter or delete diary entries that were created from the template previously.

1. Record individual foods under the same meal occasion.
2. Choose Save this meal as a Usual Meal and enter a clear template name.
3. Later select the template, choose the target date and meal occasion, review or change its components, and choose Add N foods to diary.

Finish one date, move to the next, and revisit every requested day for missed drinks, snacks, supplements, sauces, feeds and leftovers. A daily total is not proof that the record is complete.

Visible favourites and recent-food controls are not currently exposed in the client diary. Use search or usual meals instead.

Your profile can show energy as kJ, kcal or both. This changes display only. Carbohydrate, protein and fat remain in grams.

Do not use an incomplete total to decide that an intake is adequate or inadequate without your dietitian’s review.

• 0 means the source supplied a genuine numeric zero for that nutrient.
• Unavailable, blank, partial profile, or Not included in nutrient analysis means suitable information is missing. It must not be interpreted as zero.
• If one or more foods lack a nutrient, a total for that nutrient may also be unavailable.

1. Search by the exact product or brand.
2. Choose the matching Formulary product and preparation.
3. Check whether nutrients are based on a serve, 100 mL or 100 g.
4. Record the amount actually consumed, not only the amount offered.

Choose the exact product and standard preparation. When nutrients are based on prepared feed, record prepared millilitres consumed. Use powder grams or a scoop only when the source provides a verified powder measure.

The app does not currently calculate a custom or non-standard concentration from powder, water and final volume. Ask the dietitian how to record a non-standard preparation.

Do not enter powder grams as though they were prepared millilitres. Check the selected preparation basis and retain unavailable product micronutrients as unavailable rather than entering zero.

The email contains a secure tokenised import link. Send it only to the intended clinician.

1. Review every intended date and entry.
2. Enter or confirm the intended dietitian’s email address.
3. Choose Email diary and wait for the success message.
4. Tell the dietitian which dates the diary covers.

The dietitian opens the link, verifies the intended patient, imports the diary once, reviews it and saves a clinical analysis. Your original diary remains in your account, and later changes do not silently alter the imported snapshot.

A share cannot be imported twice, including two simultaneous attempts. If the diary changes, create another deliberate share.

Diary access is account-scoped. The private share link enables the controlled clinician import workflow; it is not a public diary page.

• Use only your own account and a trusted inbox.
• Never share a sign-in code.
• Check the clinician’s email before sharing and treat the share link as private.
• Record only information needed for dietetic care.
• Sign out or secure the device after use.
• Do not use the diary for urgent medical communication.
• Remember that profile deletion permanently removes its saved diaries and entries after confirmation.

Try a shorter name, brand, preparation or another source filter. Return to All, try barcode lookup, or submit the privacy-safe missing-food request. A free-text fallback may be excluded from analysis.

Check the digits, lighting and focus, then try manual lookup. Reject a result that does not match the packet; do not choose another product simply because its code looks similar.

Allow camera access in device or browser settings, reload and try again. If a camera stream is still unavailable, use manual barcode entry.

Delete and recreate the entry. Check decimal placement and distinguish solid ounces from US fluid ounces.

Read the completeness warning and use a fuller record only if it still matches the food. Never replace unavailable information with zero.

Check the clinician email, connection and displayed error. Retry once after correcting the cause. If the app reports success but no email arrives, ask the clinician to check Junk or Spam.

Check the address, Junk or Spam and use the newest code. Request a new one if it expired. Never paste the code into a message or give it to another person.

• Correct calendar dates are selected.
• Meals, snacks, supper, drinks, water, alcohol, supplements and nutrition products are included when relevant.
• Each food and preparation is the closest available match.
• Barcode products agree with the current packet.
• A reliable portion, gram or millilitre amount is recorded.
• The amount consumed—not only the amount served—is recorded.
• Useful leftovers, recipes, brands and preparation notes are included.
• Genuine zero remains separate from unavailable information.
• Every requested diary day has been checked for omissions.
• The dietitian’s email address is correct.

These features are planned or under consideration and must not be relied on until implemented, reviewed and released.

• USDA Branded Foods; UK CoFID; Canadian Nutrient File; New Zealand FOODfiles.
• Visible favourites/recent foods and in-place entry editing.
• Structured manual nutrition-label entry.
• Entry time, further DST/time-zone handling and configurable week start.
• Further mobile, camera-permission, offline and accessibility improvements.
• Richer usual-meal templates and resilient offline capture.
• Custom or non-standard formula concentration calculation.
• Explicit reanalysis using newer food data and dataset version-management tools.
• Improved missing-food feedback, nutrient-definition compatibility, reports and exports.