Which product this is
A barcode is an identifier. It takes you to one record in the food database rather than a list of forty things with similar names.
Barcode food logging
Scan it. It is logged.
Point your camera at the barcode and one serving goes straight into your diary. Loopa stops to ask only when it has a reason to.
Included in Loopa Basic Unlimited scans. No ads.
Why it matters
The packet in your hand already has the answer
Most of the friction in a food diary is packaged food: the right brand, the right variant, the right size. A barcode settles which product it is in about a second, and leaves you with the only question that was ever yours to answer.
ScanPoint the camera at the barcode
One serving is loggedStraight into the meal you are adding to
Unless something is offThen Loopa asks before it saves anything
Adjust it if you need toThe entry is editable once it is in your day
What a barcode does
A barcode identifies a product. You confirm the rest.
It is worth being exact about what the scan settles and what it does not, because the difference is where a food diary goes wrong.
The published nutrition panel
Per serving and per 100 g, as published for that product. Using a product record beats estimating a packaged food from a photograph or a description.
One serving, as the record defines it
A confident scan writes a single serving of that product into the meal you are adding to. If you had two, or half, open the entry in your day and change it.
That the record matches your packet
Product databases can lag a reformulation or a regional variant. Loopa shows you the product it found before anything is logged, and reporting a wrong one is free and improves it for everyone.
Where the numbers come from
Where a scanned entry’s numbers come from
Every entry in Loopa carries its own kind. A scanned food is the one that comes from a record rather than an inference.
From a product recordThe scan resolves to a product record and Loopa uses its published nutrition panel. This is where a barcode earns its place.
You entered itAnything you change afterwards: the amount, a macro you correct by hand, the meal it belongs to. Loopa keeps your version.
EstimatedNothing on this path. A scan does not estimate. If the barcode returns nothing, Loopa says so instead of guessing.
What is free
Scanning is part of Loopa Basic
Not a trial, not a monthly quota, and not something that stops working when an allowance runs out.
Scans a day
No counter and no cap. Scan a whole shop if that is your week.
From the AI allowance
Two AI-assisted shortcuts in Loopa have a daily number. Barcode scanning is deliberately not one of them, so it is still there when they are gone.
As your own foods
A product you scanned is saved to your own list, so the second time is a tap.
To correct the record
Report or confirm a food from inside the app. The fix reaches everyone.
Barcode scanning is included in Loopa Basic, with no daily cap.
The rest of the diary
Scanning is one of five ways in
A barcode is the right answer for anything in a wrapper. For everything else there are four other doors into the same food diary.
Search
Branded, supermarket, restaurant and everyday foods by name, uncapped.
Food loggingDescribe it in words
“Chicken wrap and an iced latte.” 10 AI entries a day, shared with voice.
How that worksSay it out loud
The same logger and the same review step, through your keyboard’s dictation.
Voice loggingPhotograph the plate
For the meals with no barcode and no obvious name.
Photo logging
Keep reading
What to look at next
All five ways to log Type, say, search, scan or photograph, into one food diary.
Micronutrients 15 of them, derived from the food you already logged.
Reading a nutrition label What the panel on the packet actually tells you, and where it misleads.
Free versus Premium Every feature in one filterable table, marked free or Premium.
FAQ
Questions about scanning
What people ask before they install a scanner.
Is the barcode scanner free?
Yes. It is part of Loopa Basic, there is no daily cap on how many products you scan, and there are no ads. It is also deliberately exempt from the daily AI allowance, so it keeps working on a day when you have used that allowance up.
What happens after I scan?
If Loopa resolves the product confidently, one serving of it goes into the meal you are adding to and the day updates. There is no confirmation step on a clean scan, because the whole point of scanning is that it is fast. Loopa interrupts only when it has a reason to: if it cannot verify the serving it shows you what it read and offers to open the nutrition label or let you type the numbers off the package instead, if the barcode turns out to be a supplement it asks where that belongs, and if nothing is found it offers to take a description instead.
Where does the nutrition information come from?
A barcode identifies a product. The nutrition figures come from the connected food database, the fatsecret Platform API, which carries branded products, supermarket own-labels and restaurant items. Loopa shows you the record it found so you can check it against the packet in your hand before you log it.
What if the product is wrong or missing?
You can report or confirm a food from inside the app, free, and that correction improves the shared database for everyone. If a barcode returns nothing, search for the product by name or enter the numbers off the packet yourself. Both are free.
Does scanning use up my AI allowance?
No. Barcode lookup and barcode logging are carved out of the allowance on purpose, along with search, browsing, autocomplete, manual entry, recent foods and logging a saved meal. The allowance applies to two things only: describing a meal in plain words or saying it out loud, and fresh nutrient estimates.
What if I ate more or less than one serving?
Open the entry in your day and change it. A scan logs one serving because that is the fastest true thing it can do, and the row is editable from the moment it lands. If you know up front you want a different amount, searching for the product by name gives you a servings control before anything is saved.
Does it work offline?
A scan needs to reach the food database to resolve the product, so it needs a connection. If you are somewhere without one, log the food by name or by typing the numbers, and both stay free.
Scan the first thing in your cupboard
Barcode scanning is included in Loopa Basic, with no daily cap and no ads. Point the camera at a packet and see how fast the rest of it is.