Does the food barcode scanner ever work for you?

[NZ_CXY]

Hello, I've been using fitbit for a while, absolutely great product, love it so much. 

Here is the only issue I'm having now: just curious does the food barcode scanner in fitness app food log section ever work for you? I've tried many but none of them work. I first started to think maybe it just this food lable in my country is not popular for all, so I went over to try a very popular international brand, the barcode still not working. At the end of the day I tried to manually type in the food name in the search bar.  Wondering since fitbit has scan function, why  even popular food won't give a scan result. Maybe because of my misuse, please advice some tips that could be helpful.

[elderwanda]

When you say it doesn't work, do you mean that it's capturing the barcode image successfully, but then telling you that the item is not in the database and asking if you want to add it?  Because that happens to me quite often.  I tend to buy brands that are smaller companies, because there a lot of the giant, shady ones that I avoid because I like to vote with my dollar.  (Kraft and Nestle, I'm looking at you.)  Sometimes things just aren't in the database yet.  I rarely add anything myself though, because they want you to take pictures of the packaging, and by that time I've usually ripped it open, and possibly had to dig it out of the trash to scan the bar code.  

Sometimes the camera/software just doesn't see a bar code at all, but that's usually down to bad lighting.  

[GershonSurge]

Two things:

It may not work if you are from New Zealand. I think there is a place to change the country.

There is a symbol in the upper left corner to turn on the flashlight. It never works for me without the flashlight.

[NZ_CXY]

Yes, scan the code is okay, but no record in the database. 

[NZ_CXY]

Change country seems not working, yeah I'm in NZ and changed to US based database and yet can't search up the bar code. Waited for a day and trid few times, still nothing happened.

Thanks mate, for the help

[SunsetRunner]

Even before I had my Fitbit, I used to track my food with My Fitness Pal - It's an amazing app and their food database is the biggest of them all. Once I got my Fitbit I did try to switch to logging my food with the Fitbit app, but it just wasn't up to scratch in comparison so I've kept with My Fitness Pal. The two apps sync together so your Fitbit will still show your daily intake and how far off your goal you are etc because MFP transfers it over.

I think it's the best way of doing it, you simply keep one app for exercise and one app for food, then they work together seamlessly. It might be a good idea with the problem you seem to be having.

[Liam_H]

I live in Scotland and everything I have scanned has not been found. The barcode is captured every time. There are millions of items out there so I suppose it will take a lot of time to accumulate them all onto the database.

[SunsetRunner]

I’m in England and I have always used My Fitness Pal to log my food. I tried the FitBit food log but found it cumbersome and annoying because it can never find the bar codes. I have to manually search or create nearly everything!  After the recent issues with MFP syncing, I decided to give it another go but it’s no better I’m afraid. I can’t wait for MFP to sort the problems so I can go back to it! 

[Kruzin2bFit]

I scanned the barcode of my Maple Leaf turkey bacon and the calories, fat content, etc do not match at all. I tried entering in 27 grams serving size noted on the package and it still did not correct the amounts. The fat content is show 3 grams higher than on the package (for example).

Who do we contact to advise of the need for a food log list correction?