Linnea, measured
Food coverage, recognition accuracy, features and ease of logging. Every number below is our own measurement; under each one, How it was measured names the data and the date.
Food coverage
Official national composition tables, everyday names in seven written languages, standard dishes computed ingredient by ingredient, and packaged foods by name, brand or barcode.
- 39,633foods and dishes to search, from the official food composition tables of 8 countries and regions
- 99.0%of everyday foods appear in the first 3 search results, without AI estimates
- 2,964standard dishes and drinks, computed ingredient by ingredient from the official tables
- 407,323packaged foods to find by name, brand or barcode, mostly sold in the United States
How it was measured
Every food and dish from the official national composition tables in Linnea’s food database — the United States, Canada, France, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and Germany — and Linnea’s standard dishes computed from them. Packaged products are counted separately.
The 2,092 foods, dishes and drinks people eat most often, in 7 languages, taken from national dietary surveys and popular menus. A food counts as found when the right one is among the first 3 results of the food search; AI estimates do not count.
Recipes written by the Linnea team for dishes the tables don’t carry. Each ingredient is matched to an official table and the dish’s values are the sum. A home-cooked dish varies with its oil, sugar and portion.
Packaged foods from the Branded Foods data of USDA FoodData Central, with the nutrition values from their labels. Search finds them by their English name or brand, and a barcode scan by their code. A barcode that isn’t in Linnea’s food database is looked up in Open Food Facts; those products are not counted here.
Measured October 20, 2026.
Recognition accuracy
Linnea computes nutrition from the composition tables wherever it can, so a dish can be checked ingredient by ingredient and corrected before it is saved.
- 5.7%median calorie error for a dish computed from its ingredients and weights
- 9.5%median calorie error for a meal described in words or by voice
- 22.4%median error of a day’s calories estimated from meal photos
How it was measured
400 weighed dishes from Nutrition5k, a public data set from Google Research. Each dish’s real ingredients and weights went through Linnea’s food database, and the result was compared with the measured dish. Median: half of the dishes came closer than this.
480 meal descriptions in 8 languages, typed and spoken. The reference values come from the amounts and the official tables.
Overhead photos of 60 weighed Nutrition5k dishes that were never used to tune Linnea, grouped into 2,000 random days of 4 dishes. A single dish is harder: its portion is hard to judge from one photo, so every photo result can be adjusted before it is saved.
Measured October 19, 2026.
Features
Ways to log, food data, devices, family and health records in one app.
- 43food-logging capabilities fully built in, out of 49 on our checklist
- 22nutrients recorded for each food besides calories, where its table has them
- 8app languages; food search works in 7 written languages
How it was measured
A checklist of 49 capabilities used to compare food-logging apps: ways to log, food data, sync and devices, family, health records, AI, languages, privacy and price. 5 more are partly built in and not counted here.
Protein, carbohydrate, fat, fibre, sugars, sodium, saturated fat, vitamins, minerals, caffeine and alcohol, as the official tables give them.
English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese for Taiwan and for Hong Kong, French, Spanish, Korean and Japanese.
Measured October 20, 2026.
Ease of logging
Counted from the app’s own screens: the fewest taps from opening the app to a saved entry.
- 2taps to log a food you eat often
- 3taps to log yesterday’s whole breakfast again
- 3taps to log a meal from a photo
How it was measured
From any screen: open logging and tap the food under Favorites. It saves at once, with undo. Typing is not counted.
At breakfast time: open logging, tap Same breakfast as yesterday, check it and save.
Open the camera from the logging bar, take the photo, check the dishes and save. Waiting for recognition is not counted.
Measured October 19, 2026.
Linnea is not a medical device and does not give medical advice. It doesn’t diagnose or recommend treatment, and it never suggests changing a medication or dose. Nutrition values are estimates for logging.
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