Ingredient and Nutrition Information

MasterCook has an extensive list of ingredients. The ingredient list is updated with each new release. For example, items from Graham Kerr's pantry were added to the list in the 1997 release (MC version 4).  Some of General Mills products were added in the 1999 release of MC5 Complete Suite Featuring Betty Crocker.  Items were added this year for the MasterCook 8 (Fall, 2004).

Since new products emerge and old ones change their formula, it's up to us to keep our ingredient database current, especially for the products we routinely use.

My first source is the USDA; Nutrition Data is the second place I search. Most of the other sources started with USDA data and supplemented it. Besides package labels, other services make nutrition summaries available on the internet. Check several sources and see if they agree.

Tell me about it!  If you have a good free source for nutrition data, tell me and I'll list it here.

Nutrition Data Sources

• USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference
• NutritionData's Nutrition Facts Calorie Counter
• Nutrition Facts - Carbohydrate counter, Calories, Fat, Trans-fats
• Beef Information Centre (Canada)
• Pork Nutritional Facts - Hormel (USA)
• Steel Packaging Council Nutrition of Canned Food
• Hannaford Nutri-Facts for Meats and Produce
• Diet-Data.com - Nutrition Facts on 6000+ Foods
• Calorie Counter Database - Thousands of nutrition facts online
• Fast Food Nutrition Facts Database, Diet Facts, Fast Foods and Restaurants - DietFacts.com
• Nutrition Toolbox Principal Health News

Nutrition Data and Articles

• [new listing] Food Labels -- Nutrition information and misinformation
•  Calculating Carbohydrates for Recipes which don't have Nutritional Information. By Mary Jean Renstrom (1999). Focuses on calculating the carbohydrates in a recipe.
• FDA-CFSAN FDA Nutrition Labeling Manual -- A Guide for Developing and Using Data Bases (Acceptable Rounding Error)
• Nutrition Label Consistency: how to check the accuracy of the label
• 'Nutrition Facts' to Help Consumers Eat Smart (FDA)
• 5 A Day Fruit and Vegetable of the Month (Prep and Facts)
• From the Cleveland Clinic How to Read Food Labels
• Where do nutrition summaries come from; is MC a reliable source?
  Which numbers can we trust?  Read Jodie Shield Article
• The New Food Label (USDA)
• Nutrition, Health, Medicine, Food Resource, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR
• Better Nutrition by Analyzing Food Labels (paper)
• How many Weight Watchers Points is that

Information Documents and Tips for MC

Searching the List for an Ingredient: The ingredient you are looking for may be in MasterCook's list but you don't know what it was called.

Get a text copy of the contents of the MasterCook ingredient list that you can read in a text processor, which has a more efficient search feature.

How to find an ingredient by name (or how to use the ingredient list) is fully discussed at Pam's Cupboard.

Cooks.com Nutrition Facts can help you find an ingredient's name. Search results will be a list of all entries that contain a string.

TIP - Sometimes nutrition summaries refer to "1 NLEA serving." NLEA stands for Nutrition Labeling and Education Act: it's defined as the amount "customarily consumed."

"AVERAGE WHOLE?" This MC warning message relates to cost; not measure. To make the message go away, edit the ingredient More Info tab. Define a unit and it's price.  Check out the MC Cupboard's Ingredient Section for additional  tips and advice.

From Label to MC Table - How to convert those daily values from a food label to the ingredient database of MC2-4, by Pat Hanneman: Food Label - MasterCook's Ingredient Table

Tutorial : How to add an ingredient to the MasterCook Ingredient List.