My photo isn't being recognized

When you use Scan Food, Nutrola sends your meal photo to its servers and returns an estimate, so unclear or crowded shots are the usual reason a dish gets missed. Light the food well, fit the whole plate inside the framing lines, and keep ingredients visible. If a result looks wrong, you can edit it or switch logging methods.

How Nutrola reads a meal photo

Open the center + in the tab bar, then tap Scan Food to open the live camera. Tap the round shutter button to take the picture (there is no "Use Photo" button), or tap the gallery icon to import a photo you already have. After you capture, Nutrola takes you back to your home screen and analyzes the photo in the background, showing "Analyzing your meal..." while it works. The analysis runs on Nutrola's servers and produces an estimate you can adjust, not a fixed result.

How to get a photo that scans well

These are the in-app tips Nutrola shows on the camera help screen (tap the ? icon in the Scan Food camera):

• Fit the meal inside the scan lines and don't cut off the edges, so the full plate is captured.
• Ensure good lighting. Bright, even light reads far better than dim or heavily shadowed shots.
• Make every ingredient visible. Spread out layered food and remove covers, lids, or foil so nothing important is hidden.
• For restaurant or mixed dishes where the ingredients aren't obvious, the photo scan is most useful, but for packaged items a barcode is more exact.

What to do if the result looks wrong

A photo meal does not have a portion or serving-size control, because Nutrola stores it on a fixed 100g basis Why can't I change the serving size of a photo-scanned meal?. To correct it, open the meal and:

• Tap the calorie value or any macro to edit it directly (Edit Calories, Protein, Carbs, or Fat) Edit a meal's calories, protein, carbs, or fat by hand.
• Edit, add, or remove ingredients in the list Edit, add, or remove ingredients in a scanned meal.
• Tap Fix Result and describe what was off, for example "I only ate half of the portion" or "It was made with almond milk." Nutrola recounts based on your note Correct an AI meal with 'Fix Result' (tell it what's wrong).

For more on adjusting an estimate, see The calorie or macro estimate looks wrong and Edit or delete a logged meal.

If a photo still isn't recognized

If the scan can't read the food, switch to another logging method:

• Describe Food. From the + menu, tap Describe Food and say or type what you ate for an AI estimate.
• Scan Barcode for packaged foods. If a barcode isn't found, Nutrola shows a card titled "Hmm, I don't know this one!" with a "Describe it instead" button. Barcode data comes from a large product database, so some products simply aren't in it yet, which isn't a problem with your phone Barcode won't scan.
• Import an existing photo with the gallery icon in Scan Food if your live shot kept missing the dish Log a meal from a photo already in your gallery.

For a full overview of every way to log a meal, see How to log a meal. To learn more about how the AI estimate is produced, see How Nutrola's AI calorie counting works.

Still need help? In the app, open Profile/Settings → Support & Legal → Contact us to chat with our support assistant, or email us at support@nutrola.app.