Nutrition data

Where an ingredient’s calories and other nutrition facts come from, and what to do when a recipe can’t count one.

Where the figures come from

Most ingredients in the built-in catalog carry their nutrition for a set weight, almost always 100 g, along with weights — for a cup, one item, or a named portion — that let a recipe’s amount reach it. The figures come mostly from the USDA’s FoodData Central, and a few from package labels. Mirepoix keeps these figures up for every kitchen, and a recipe’s nutrition panel is built from them.

Figures your kitchen entered for an ingredient in the past still count, in place of the catalog’s.

How an amount becomes grams

To count a line, Mirepoix weighs it with what the catalog has on file for that ingredient:

A weight — grams, ounces, pounds — converts directly.
A volume — cups, tablespoons, milliliters — uses the ingredient’s volume conversion, such as 1 cup = 125 g for all-purpose flour.
A count — “3 eggs”, “1 avocado” — uses the weight of one item. Without one, it uses a named portion called by the ingredient’s own noun, the last word of its name in the singular: “4 chicken thighs” uses a thigh portion, “12 sardines” a sardine portion. Words in parentheses don’t count, so Pork chops (bone-in) uses a chop portion. A medium portion isn’t used this way: it can be smaller than what a recipe counts, like one stem of enoki rather than a bunch.
A named unit — “2 sticks”, “1 slice” — uses a named portion: the weight of one stick or one slice of that ingredient.
A size — “6 large”, “1 medium” — uses the catalog’s weight for that size when it has one, and otherwise the weight of one item. Extra large uses the large weight first, when there is one. A spelling like “medium-size” or “extra-large” counts as the same size.

When the catalog has no weight for the unit a line uses, the line isn’t counted. How a recipe gets its nutrition covers the rest, including parenthetical measures like 3 ears (300 g).

When a recipe can’t count an ingredient

A line Mirepoix can’t count is marked on the recipe page: its drawing is faded, in a dashed ring, with a small ? on the corner. Tap the drawing to see why. Three of the reasons are gaps in the catalog: no catalog match, no nutrition data, or no weight for the line’s unit. See Why some ingredients aren’t counted for all of them.

Report a nutrition gap

To tell Mirepoix about a gap so the shared catalog can be fixed for every kitchen:

Open the recipe and tap the marked line’s drawing.
Under the reason, tap Report this.

The button gives way to Thanks, we’ll take a look. There’s no reply and no status to check, and the line stays uncounted until the catalog can count it. On a line where your kitchen has switched to a substitute, the panel names the substitute, and that’s what you report. Report this is for kitchen members; visitors don’t see it. What a report carries, and who reads it, is under Reported nutrition gaps.

Water, tap water, and ice

Water, tap water, and ice never count toward a recipe’s nutrition totals. Your recipes never put them on the Pantry or the grocery list either.

Leaving an ingredient out of nutrition

Every other ingredient counts whenever Mirepoix can weigh it, unless your kitchen has set it to be left out. In the app, only Mirepoix’s operator has a control for that, but an ingredient your kitchen set to be left out stays left out. A line you keep as written in the recipe editor isn’t counted either — see Check ingredients.

To stop the Pantry asking about something, like salt, tap Don’t ask in its row’s ⋮ menu instead — see Stop asking about an item. That changes nothing about nutrition.