Frequently Asked Questions

myfood24 is a validated online food diary system created to analyse nutritional intake. It was initially created for use in large epidemiological studies, we now have a healthcare and teaching version available too. 

myfood24 is intended for use by healthcare professionals to support patients with diet-related disease, researchers and their study participants, plus teaching professionals and their students.

If you are a healthcare professional, researcher or teacher wishing to use the app, you can purchase a licence via myfood24. Contact enquiries@myfood24.org to find out more.

myfood24 healthcare will support patient and healthcare professionals to monitor nutritional intake. Healthcare professionals will be able to set goals for the patient and will be given the patient's data in graphs for visual feedback. myfood24 healthcare also allows for the diary to be completed by another person, for example a patient's carer of family member. 

 

myfood24 research is a useful tool for academics and postgraduate researchers undertaking research in nutrition. Full nutritional intake from all participants of a project are available to download into excel upon project completion. Project settings can be configured by the administrator (researcher) to allow participants to log the time foods have been consumed, record whether nutritional supplements are being consumed and see a calorie summary upon diary submission.

 

myfood24 education is a learning tool for lecturers and teaching professionals. Teachers are able to monitor the diary entries of their students and have access to the data of the whole class presented in graphs. Students can complete multiple diaries for different days within the same teaching project. myfood24 education also allows the students to access graphs summarising their own nutritional content.

Yes, myfood24 has a recipe builder which allows you to enter the raw ingredients as stated in the recipe. It will calculate the size of an individual portion based on the number of servings you enter. The nutritional information provided will take into consideration weight and nutrient changes due to cooking. Recipes can be saved to your myfood24 account so you can quickly access them in the future.

myfood24 is available in: English, Arabic, Danish, French, German, Norwegian and Spanish. We are always looking to expand the number of languages available, please do get in touch if you have any questions or would like to work with us.

Yes!

To try a free demo please use the free demo link. Please note this is not the full solution and only provides feedback on the 8 ‘back of pack’ nutrients. The full solution provides feedback on 100+ nutrient attributes.

myfood24 automatically analyses the nutritional information for each food diary submitted. This information can be exported as two CSV files, one is a summary of each diary with back of pack nutrients and the second is a breakdown of each food item with over 100 nutrients. If you would like to see an example of the CSV nutrient outputs, please get in touch to request this. 

Our teaching version also displays the nutritional information in a number of vibrant graphs and charts to help convey this information in an engaging manner. 

Yes.

After a diary has been submitted, end-users can see a summary of their nutritional intake for the 8 back of pack nutrients against reference intakes.

However, if you do not wish for your end-users to receive information on their nutritional intake, this can be switched off and is configurable in your project settings. 

A nutrient biomarker is a characteristic that can be measured in biological samples and used as an indicator of nutritional status - the intake and metabolism of dietary components. Urinary and plasma biomarkers were utilised in the development of myfood24. Biomarkers are the "gold standard" reference measure. 

myfood24 is an online application, meaning it requires internet access to work. myfood24 can be accessed via a computer, laptop or tablet, although we recommend using a computer or laptop if you are setting up projects.

myfood24 is compatible with most browsers and has been tested on the following: Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Microsoft Edge and Safari. If you are experiencing problems using myfood24 on a web browser, please try using a different one. If problems persist, please get in touch and let us know the web browser you are using and provide screenshots of the issue wherever possible. 

We take data security seriously, from the company’s Core Values, the design of myfood24 through to staff training and procedures.

We use a third-party server to host myfood24 called Amazon Web Services, the privacy policy
of which is available here: https://aws.amazon.com/privacy/. Our servers are located in Dublin, Ireland. 

We comply with the General Data Protection Regulation. For more details on how we collect, process and store your data, please refer to our Privacy Policy.

We have the following certifications and accreditations:

• ISO27001
• Cyber Essentials
• Cyber Essentials Plus
• NHS Data Security and Protection Toolkit 
• DCB0129
• DTAC ready
• ORCHA: web, iOS and Android

 

There are over 100,000 food items currently in the UK myfood24 dataset. We are continually working hard to expand the myfood24 dataset to reflect the wide range of food and drink items available. At present, we have over 200,000 food items worldwide.

Currently myfood24 has the following databases:

• McCance and Widdowson’s Composition of foods integrated dataset 6^th and 7th edition
• Commercial dataset of UK branded items including supermarket, fast food outlets, restaurant chains and specialised stores
• AUSNUT 2011-13 - Australia
• Specialised sip and tube feeds
• Baby and infants foods – UK
• Baby and infants foods – New Zealand
• Baby and infants foods – Singapore
• German Nutrient Database BLS – Germany v3.02 (generic)
• German LEBTAB (branded)
• Denmark Frida Fooddata v2 (generic)
• Danish infant foods
• French Food Composition Database CIQUAL 2017 (generic)
• French branded
• Middle Eastern database
• Norwegian Food Composition Table 2018 (generic)
• Norwegian branded 
• Peruvian National Food Composition Tables (generic)
• Ugandan database
• United States of America USDA Database (generic)

Yes.

It is recommended that for the UK both McCance & Widdowson Composition of Foods plus branded items are selected.

We are always keen to continue adding databases to myfood24. If there is a specific database you wish to use or would like to collaborate on creating a specialised database, please do get in touch using the contact us form.

Due to the extensive mapping process and quality checks the myfood24 dataset goes through before new food and drink items appear on the database, food and drink items must be added by the myfood24 team.

There is however a comments box at the end of each diary submission which can be used by users to mention any particular items they were unable to find. 

If there are specific food items you would like to be added to the myfood24 dataset, you can request these by using our contact form. 

A number of missing values (N and blank values) in the McCance and Widdowson 7 (Generic) database have been ‘over-stamped’ with an equivalent value from a similar product. In addition, as our MW7 Branded database products have been mapped to MW7 generic items for a more complete nutrient profile, some of these ‘over-stamped’ values will apply to this database as well. This is to provide the best and most complete databases possible for our customers. For more information, please send us an email at enquiries@myfood24.org.

To reduce the number of food items brought up from a search, you can use the filter tabs to select a specific category or brand. If you are still unable to find a food item, you can substitute it with the 'generic' version or the most similar food item you can find.

A food item can easily be moved to another section by simply clicking on the item tile and dragging it to the correct section. Food items can also be deleted and edited from their tile.

The diary should take approximately 15 minutes to complete a whole days’ worth of food. The completion of the diary should become quicker after your first few uses.

Yes.

Your food entries are saved automatically when added to the diary. However your project leader may have configured the diary settings to erase entries if you have not submitted your diary after 24 hours. If you are unsure of how this will affect you, please contact your healthcare professional, researcher or teacher directly.

Your diary cannot be changed after submission.

There is no limit to the number of recipes you can save.

When your project is completed, you will be able to download and save your results as a csv file. This must be done before your license runs out. You will get a reminder to do this a month before your license is due to end.

You can only select the two questions provided. However, if you wanted to input your own questions, myfood24 can be linked to an online questionnaire. Please get in touch if you wish to find out how to do this.

For a teaching project, the project length can be changed once it has begun, but the default project settings will only be applied for future projects. For a research project, the settings are all specific to each project and can be changed throughout.

When a participant chooses to opt out of a project, they can to choose whether or not to fill in the comment box. If this is filled out you will see the comment written.

To use the myfood24 healthcare app you need to be invited by a healthcare professional. When your healthcare professional has added you to myfood24, you will receive an email from hello@myfood24.org to complete your registration.

Click the ‘Complete registration’ button in the email to confirm your email address and create a password. Once you have submitted a password your registration is complete and you can download the app from the Play Store or the iPhone app from the Apple App Store.

Login using the email address and password you used to register, then you can start recording your intake. There is a link for how to use myfood24 healthcare in the registration email and there is help text in the Settings section of the app.

If you have any queries please contact us at enquiries@myfood24.org.

If you wish to purchase a myfood24 licence, please get in touch using the contact us form.

myfood24 licences last for 12 months.

We have a standard pricing model in place which includes an annual licence fee plus a fee per anticipated use of the system for research use. For a quote, please get in touch using our contact form.

If myfood24 has been used in any way for a publication, for example used to collect dietary intake information, myfood24 must be acknowledged in the standard way.

Any publication, whether in writing or otherwise, which has made use of myfood24, must include within it the standard acknowledgement:

“myfood24 was developed through Medical Research Council funding, grant G110235. myfood24 is now being supported by spinout company Dietary Assessment Ltd. Requests to use myfood24 should be made to enquiries@myfood24.org.”