Where our food data comes from
In short
Basic foods like apples, rice and chicken come from your country’s official food composition database: NEVO in the Netherlands and Belgium, CoFID in the UK and Ireland, and USDA FoodData Central in the US. Branded products come from Open Food Facts, and in the US also from USDA’s branded food data. Every product shows which source it came from.
Cody de LeeuwLast checked 29 October 2026 · 4 min read
One base source per country
| Region | Basic foods | Branded products |
|---|---|---|
| Netherlands, Belgium and the rest of the EU | NEVO (RIVM) | Open Food Facts, your own country first |
| United Kingdom and Ireland | CoFID (McCance and Widdowson) | Open Food Facts, UK and Ireland first |
| United States | USDA FoodData Central | USDA Branded Foods and Open Food Facts |
Mitta uses one base source per region on purpose. Mixing two national databases gives two slightly different entries for the same apple.
Why national databases
Branded products and barcodes
Packaged products come from Open Food Facts, a database that people around the world add products to, with the values from the label.4 In the US, Mitta also checks USDA’s branded food data by barcode. Because anyone can add to Open Food Facts, a value can occasionally be wrong; if a product looks off, check it against the label.
Your own products
If a product is not found, you can add it yourself from the label. Your own products are only visible to you. Products you logged earlier keep working, with the source they came from.
How Mitta does it
Every value has a source.
Each product in Mitta shows where its values come from, and the full list of sources and licences is in Settings.
- Works offlineBasic foods for your region are built into the app, so search works in a basement gym.
- AI does not make up valuesWhen you log from text or a photo, the AI suggests foods and grams; the values come from these databases.
Log food from sources you can trust.
National food databases, barcode scanning and your own products. Free to start, in the web app for invited testers.
Questions about
Where our food data comes from
Which food database does Mitta use?
NEVO for the Netherlands, Belgium and the EU, CoFID for the UK and Ireland, and USDA FoodData Central for the US, plus Open Food Facts for branded products.
Why does a product show different values than the pack?
Branded values come from Open Food Facts, where products are added by people. Recipes also change over time. Check the label, and add your own product if needed.
Can I search food offline?
Yes, for basic foods: your region’s base database is built into the app. Branded products need a connection.
Sources
- RIVM. NEVO, the Dutch food composition database (NEVO-online 2025/9.0). www.rivm.nl/en/dutch-food-composition-database
- Office for Health Improvement and Disparities. McCance and Widdowson’s Composition of Foods Integrated Dataset (CoFID) 2021. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. www.gov.uk/government/publications/composition-of-foods-integrated-dataset-cofid
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central. fdc.nal.usda.gov/
- Open Food Facts, a collaborative database of food products, under the Open Database License (ODbL). world.openfoodfacts.org/
Written by Cody de Leeuw. First published 29 October 2026, last checked 29 October 2026. This article is general information, not medical advice. Spotted a mistake? Tell me