Posts

Shrinkflated

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Shrinkflated.com  maintains a public record of shrinkflation based on crowd-sourced shelf photos and published reports.  It also tracks recipe changes. Product data is partly from Open Food Facts.

Open-source Calorie Trackers

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  Fud AI is a free & open-source AI calorie & workout tracker for iOS and Android created by Apoorv Darshan.  Fud AI is a Udyam-registered micro enterprise in India, operating as a sole proprietorship in Services. Fud AI looks up packaged foods by barcode using Open Food Facts when public product nutrition is available and falls back to USDA FoodData Central branded foods only if you add your own free USDA FoodData Central API key.  The Live Voice feature in Fud AI makes food logging feel like a conversation. Cal AI and similar apps popularized the idea of “snap a photo, get the calories.” Fud AI offers the same core functions — photo, voice, barcode, and text logging with AI-generated nutrition estimates — but takes a different approach: it’s free forever with your own AI key, open source under the MIT License, local-first with no account required, and completely ad-free. ~ Chompass is an open-source calorie tracker based on Fud AI available for both Androi...

Poovalan Shrimp

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Poovalan shrimp is a premium variety of shrimp widely sourced from the west coast of India, available in multiple sizes and processed forms for both domestic and export markets. In the TV drama Mampuku, inspired by Nissin’s iconic creation, the product team experiments with various toppings for their Cup Noodles, including Poovalan shrimp. Poovalan shrimp is prized for its firm texture and flavor, making it suitable for curries, fried dishes, and international seafood recipes. 

Open Food Facts India Crosses 25,000 Products: My Journey with OFF

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The India database of Open Food Facts (OFF) has crossed 25,000 products !  This matters because India needs greater nutritional awareness and transparency about food. With diabetes and obesity posing growing public health challenges, and GLP-1 weight-loss drugs gaining popularity, reliable, accessible food data is more important than ever. In the United States, over 73% of the food supply is ultra-processed. India's percentage? Unknown. Because it's not really tracked. OFF is changing that. Open food data can help people explore ingredients, food processing, nutrition scores and product information. Indian products have also grown significantly in Open Beauty Facts (OBF, current count 1858) and Open Product Facts (OPF, 795) over the past year. Here are some quick stats about Open Food Facts India as of October 2026: Total products: 25000+ Categories: 3100  Products with NOVA classification: 7198 Products with Nutri-Score ratings (A,B,C,D,E, not-applicable): 6701 Bran...

Mampuku

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Manpuku (sometimes written Mampuku) is a Japanese television drama that hit Netflix as part of a wave of classic NHK shows made available to global audiences.  It's the 99th of NHK's "asadora" (short, wholesome morning dramas broadcast in 15-minute daily episodes) and originally ran from October 2018 to March 2019. The series is based on the true story of Momofuku Ando , the Taiwanese-Japanese businessman who founded Nissin Foods and invented instant ramen — the humble Chicken Ramen packet in 1958, and later Cup Noodles in 1971.  If you've ever survived on instant noodles as a student or eaten a Cup Noodles at 2 a.m., this show is the origin story of your meal. Rather than a straight biography, the drama is told through the eyes of his wife. The lead is Fukuko, a character inspired by Ando's real wife, Masako. The story follows the couple from pre-WWII Osaka through the war's devastation and into Japan's era of rapid economic growth, as they struggle t...