Every food in Foodzone states where its numbers come from. Open any food's About this food panel and its Data source tab names the source; this page explains what each source is and which to choose.
Which database should I use?
We recommend the Australia database for most people. It combines the government's AUSNUT 2023 survey foods with a wide range of brand foods and a complete set of nutrients, so everyday logging finds the foods you actually buy without giving up nutrient depth. The other databases are there when you need them — clinical work against a specific government release, New Zealand foods, or continuity with an older diary. Your database is set per profile — open Profile from the diary to change it.
The two Australia databases
- Australia — the current database, rebuilt on AUSNUT 2023. We rebuilt it to keep the data current: newer government survey data, better brand-food coverage, cleaner serving measures and a complete nutrient set.
- Australia (legacy) — the earlier build. It isn't going away: many people have custom foods and recipes stored in it and long-running diaries that rely on it, and it will keep working for as long as they do.
Custom foods and recipes cannot be migrated between the two. The underlying food items don't match across builds, so a recipe's ingredients can't be carried over automatically. If you move to the current Australia database, you'll need to recreate your custom foods and recipes there.
Databases don't mix
Each database has its own set of core nutrients and its own food items — that separation is what keeps every number accurate, so foods from different databases are never combined in one profile.
- Custom foods and recipes belong to the database they were created in. If you switch your profile to another database, they won't be visible there.
- Nothing is deleted when you switch. Switch back and everything is exactly where you left it. Past diary entries always keep the numbers they were logged with.
- If you plan to build up many custom foods and recipes, choose your database deliberately first — they'll live in whichever database is active when you create them.
Government food composition databases
These are the survey and reference databases published by food authorities. Their values are used exactly as published — nothing is estimated or altered by Foodzone.
- AUSNUT 2023 — the nutrient database Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) publishes alongside the Australian national nutrition survey. Its strength is foods as people eat them: mixed dishes, takeaway items and composite foods, built with FSANZ's recipe method. Published at foodstandards.gov.au.
- Australian Food Composition Database v3 — FSANZ's reference database of analysed individual Australian foods (the successor to NUTTAB). Fewer composite dishes than AUSNUT, but the deepest analytical detail per food — it's where core items such as protein powders and staples are matched from. Also at foodstandards.gov.au.
- New Zealand FoodFiles 2024 — the New Zealand Food Composition Database, published by Plant & Food Research and the Ministry of Health. The New Zealand equivalent of the Australian reference data, covering NZ-specific foods and brands. Published at foodcomposition.co.nz.
- Legacy releases — AUSNUT 2013, FoodFiles 2016 and Australian Food Composition v1 remain available so long-running diaries keep their history and their numbers. They receive no new foods; new profiles should use the current releases above.
The practical difference: survey databases (AUSNUT) describe foods as eaten and include composite dishes; reference databases (AFCD, FoodFiles) describe individual analysed foods in the greatest nutrient detail. The Australia database draws on both, which is why it is the default recommendation.
Foodzone brand foods
Brand foods are created by Foodzone from the manufacturer's own nutrition panel. The values printed on the label are stored exactly as declared and are never altered.
Labels only print a handful of nutrients, so the rest are estimated: Foodzone builds a recipe from the pack's own ingredient list, matches each ingredient to a government database food, and composes the missing values — the same recipe method FSANZ uses to build survey foods. Some core items without a retail label are matched directly to a database food instead.
Each brand food's Data source tab shows how its match was made: the matched recipe with its percentages, a plain-English quality grade, and a confidence score. Every published match was accepted by a human reviewer.
Custom foods and recipes
Custom items are created by Foodzone users — a practitioner's clinic foods, your own recipes, or items shared with your profile. They are not from a government database: their values are whatever their creator entered, and a custom recipe's nutrition is composed from its own ingredients. The Data source tab shows the recipe where one exists.