Look up food by barcode and check its nutrition
Use the barcode to find candidates, then verify identity, country, portion and the label before logging your actual amount.
Find a food by barcode
Type the number printed below the bars. Keep any leading zeros.
Manual number lookup; no camera needed. A match still needs the product, country and serving checks below. A missing result is not a zero-calorie food.
A barcode helps identify a packaged product; it does not measure what you ate or guarantee that a database has the newest label. In GetMacros, type the number into food search, then check the returned brand, product, market, serving and nutrient panel before logging.
Find the exact product first
- Open food search in the diary or food library. Enter the barcode number as printed, including leading zeros. Manual entry works without a camera.
- Check the food’s brand, flavor and package. A chocolate shake is not interchangeable with the vanilla version, and a multipack is not necessarily one bottle.
- Confirm the country and source. A product sold in two countries can have different formulations or labels.
- Review the source portion, calories, protein, carbohydrate and fat against your package. Then choose the amount you actually ate.
A matching number is only part of the check
| Check | What to compare | When it is not enough |
|---|---|---|
| Identity | Brand, full name, flavor and package | A similar name with a different flavor |
| Market | Country attached to the source record | The barcode prefix by itself |
| Portion | Grams, mL, pieces or named serving | A number with no matching unit |
| Panel | Calories and supported nutrient amounts | Imported status without package agreement |
GS1 explains that the first digits of an EAN barcode do not tell you where the product was manufactured. They identify the organization associated with allocating the prefix. Do not select a Canadian food record merely because a barcode-prefix list appears to point at Canada.
GS1 also requires a new GTIN for a change in declared net content. Package identity therefore matters: do not deliberately collapse every size into one product just because the brand and flavor match. Database grouping should help you inspect source versions, not overwrite their different nutrition.
Why can a result disagree with the package?
A source can be older, incomplete or tied to a different market or package. FoodData Central includes different data types; branded records derive from product-label information, while reference-food records have a different purpose. Being present in a large database is not a statement that GetMacros has independently laboratory-tested that food.
First check whether the apparent discrepancy is only the serving basis. A panel per 100 g and a result per 30 g should differ until normalized. If the identity and units match but the figures still disagree, do not silently log a convenient number as exact. Look for a better matching source or report the mismatch with the product name, barcode, country and serving definition.
Set your portion after choosing the record
A product lookup does not know whether you ate one serving, half a package or a spoonful. Use a supported unit and enter your quantity. If a source supplies no gram weight for a named serving, the app cannot honestly turn that serving into a weighed amount without more information.
Missing nutrients are not zeros. A record with known calories and protein but unknown carbohydrate and fat can only support a partial macro total. Do not fill the blanks from another flavor, another country or a generic product average and present the result as a verified label.
When the barcode is missing
The current library is a set of available, source-labelled records, not every item in every grocery store. An empty result can mean the product is absent, the source is unavailable or the market has limited coverage. Try the exact brand and name; inspect any alternative as carefully as the barcode result.
Once a correct portion is logged, Recent or Favorites can make the next entry faster. Check again when you buy a changed product. A saved portion is useful history, not a promise that a manufacturer’s future package will never change.
Sources & serving notes
- GS1 · barcode prefix is not country of origin
Current official explanation inspected; no origin inference made from a prefix.
- GS1 · declared net content and GTIN changes
Current official rule inspected; no guarantee that every provider follows it perfectly.
- USDA FoodData Central · data documentation
Current official data-type documentation inspected; imported branded status distinguished from independent verification.
- FDA · understanding the Nutrition Facts label
Official product panel read on the research date. Check your own package for the current formulation.
Sources checked 2026-10-19. No claim that every barcode exists or that manual lookup is camera scanning. Final UI journey requires integrated browser verification.