App road test: Recipe IQ
By Lexia Greitzer RDN, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
Recipe IQ is a free recipe analyzer that gives you the nutrition facts from homemade meals. It is an invaluable kitchen tool for professional and beginner chefs alike. You simply use your phone to take a picture of a recipe from a newspaper, magazine or cookbook (a photo of the words in the ingredient list, that is, not a photo of the food itself), and then upload that image into the app. Recipe IQ translates the words into nutrition information, including grams of carbohydrate, protein and fat; calories, vitamins, minerals, fiber, and cholesterol.
RecipeIQ makes it easy to have the complete nutrient breakdown easily available and clearly presented. It takes the guesswork out of trying new recipes for health-minded chefs and consumer. As a dietitian I love sharing recipes with clients–and this app helps me know I’m offering a recipe that suites their nutrition needs.
While I highly recommend the app, be aware of this glitch: Some of the nutrient breakdowns can be questioned. For example, I had a smoothie that consisted of an apple, 1/2 banana, kale, ginger, lemon juice and coconut water. I put it into the app several times, reviewed the ingredients, and it said that the recipe was 803kcal. My common sense told me the calories were closer to 250. I noticed that recipes uploaded from websites were more accurate than those which relied on a photo taken from a cook book. I assume this is related to the quality of the picture I am taking.
The app has been developed in the USA but it easily converts between metric and imperial measurement at the touch of a button. Hence, it can be used globally. The database includes more than 7,3000 ingredients.
Visit their website here.
