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Whether you’re a fan of food or just want to start making healthier choices, apps may be the key to making informed decisions about what you eat. These apps can help you learn more about the food that fuels your body, helping you lead a healthier lifestyle, feel better and choose when to splurge.
This infographic shows you food apps that can start you off on the right path in 2016 and beyond. Read more about each app after the infographic to learn which apps might be best for you.
OpenTable
Making restaurant reservations is a lot easier using OpenTable. This free service shows you which restaurants have tables available where and when you want to dine out.
Use the app or the website any time of day or night to make reservations without ever having to call a restaurant. Earn points for the reservations you make using OpenTable to get rewards for future meals.
Make your reservation directly through OpenTable and get a confirmation sent to your email and the email of someone else. You can also add the reservation directly to your calendar from the app.
You can sign up for an account and download the iPhone and Android apps from the OpenTable website.
=> Check out my full review at Open Doors with OpenTable!
Max McCalman’s Cheese & Wine Pairing App
If you’re looking to make the most of wine and cheese, check out the Cheese and Wine app. This app makes recommendations of both wine and cheese, telling you about hundreds of different cheeses and suggesting wines to pair with them. Find over 3000 possible combinations based on 600 different cheeses.
Don’t know where to start? The app has a Cheese 101 section to give you the basics about selecting cheeses.
The Max McCalman’s Cheese & Wine Pairing App is free for iPhone and iPad.
Epicurious
Epicurious is a free recipe app and website to help you find the best recipes and make you a better cook. The app gives you over 30,000 recipes and can create a shopping list based on the ingredients of a recipe you select.
The app has over 30,000 recipes which you can search. Search by ingredients or by what’s in season in your area. You can see which recipes are highly rated and how many users would make the recipe again.
You can also read reviews by users who have recommendations and tips for tweaking the recipes. Each recipe has a list of ingredients, preparation time and instructions as well as a photo of the finished meal.
Sign up for an account and get the apps from the Epicurious website.
=> Also see, Epicurious + Pinterest = Your Recipe for Cooking Success!
Calorific
Not sure what 200 calories look like? You’re not alone. If you’ve ever seen side-by-side calorie comparisons, you have an idea of what this app can do for you.
Calorific shows you images of 200 calories worth of food. If you are on a calorie-restricted diet or just want to eat healthier, check out how much of each food you can eat.
200 calories looks a lot different for broccoli than it does for a donut! You can see side-by-side comparisons and search for foods you want to eat. Use Calorific to plan healthier meals so you can eat more without having a calorie overload.
The app uses images of the foods to show you exactly how much 200 calories is and gives you the weight of the food for reference. Calorific shows you how much you can eat to stay within your calorie range.
Calorific is free for iPhone and iPad. A paid upgrade is available to unlock more types of foods.
=> Also see MyFitnessPal Review to learn more about tracking calories using an app.
The Fridge
The Fridge app mentioned in the infographic is no longer available.
Harvest
Eat healthier, save money and time with the Harvest app. Harvest tells you when fruits and vegetables are in season in your area so you can know when to buy the freshest ingredients. If you’ve ever planned a meal only to find that a key ingredient was out of season, then Harvest is the app for you.
Harvest also tells you the amount of pesticides used so you know when to splurge on buying organic produce. You can find out how long you can store foods and the best ways to keep food fresh longer.
Learn more about Harvest at the Harvest app website.
The Harvest app is available for $1.99 for iPhone and iPad.
=> Also check out Locavore: Your Tech Tip for Farm Fresh Food! to find farmers’ markets in your area.
Fooducate
Looking for healthy foods? Fooducate can help you learn which food choices are healthiest for you.
Open the app and scan the barcode of a food with the app. See whether that food gets rated an A, B, C or D for nutrition and get suggestions about healthier choices. You can search the database to see which foods get the highest ratings.
You can also use this app to track your calories and exercise if you’re trying to lose weight or just use it to make healthier food choices.
Join the community and discuss food choices with others. Find healthy recipes and get the tip of the day from the Fooducate website.
Fooducate is available free for:
In-app purchases are available to remove ads, follow specific diets and help identify allergens in food.
Vegout/HappyCow
If you’re a vegetarian or vegan, then you know eating out can be challenging. If you’re not a vegetarian or vegan, but are going to be dining out with someone who is, you probably want the inside scoop on the best restaurants for them.
Either way you should check out HappyCow, an app designed to give you information about restaurants and stores for vegetarians and vegans. (Note the infographic above lists the Vegout app, which is no longer available but used information from HappyCow).
The HappyCow app is based on the HappyCow website, where you can search for restaurants based on your location or in countries around the world. You can search for places based on whether you’re a vegetarian or a vegan, including restaurants and stores.
Discover places near you or search according to a keyword. You can set the search radius for the distance you’re willing to travel.
HappyCow is $3.99 for:
A free version of HappyCow is available for Android that has ads and requires an Internet connection.
LocalEats
When you’ve had enough of chain restaurants and want to eat like a local, check out LocalEats, a website and app that show you local restaurants. Check out restaurants that are locally owned and operated so you can sample foods from that area.
LocalEats can help you find local restaurants in major cities in the US, and in other countries. You can search for local restaurants by using the LocalEats website or the app.
If you want to use LocalEats on the go, the app is available for $0.99. Be sure to check to see if your area is covered by the app before you buy it:
Where Chefs Eat
This app is a portable version of the 975 page book Where Chefs Eat. As no ebook version of this hardcover book is available, much less a paperback version, traveling with this information becomes a challenge.
The Where Chefs Eat app gives you the information from the book so you can have it available on the go. The app shows you information on 3000 restaurants around the world from 600 chefs so you can find recommendations when you travel.
You can see which restaurants are close to you on a map with the Near Me feature, or you can search by region, chef or the name of the restaurant. Restaurants with a wide range of price ranges are included so you can dine according to your budget.
Where Chefs Eat is available for $14.99 for iPhone and iPad.
Your Thoughts
Do you use apps to help you make better food choices? Have you tried any of these apps? Do you have any food apps you recommend?
Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!
* Produce image (edited) courtesy of ScotchBroom via Flickr and Creative Commons
* The Ultimate Food App Guide infographic is used with permission from Evoke.ie
Hi Carolyn,
Let me start by wishing you a very Happy & Prosperous New Year 🙂
Wow! What a collection of mouth-watering yum food! I have heard of a few of these apps but never really tried them because I wonder whether they would work in our country. More so, our way of cooking and the dishes are very different from the usual ones we see in the images. Nevertheless, I must try out a few to see if it would suit us.
Yes, being vegetarians, I think the Happy Cow would be good. Calorific and Fooducate seem interesting to just educate yourself about food and the calories one intakes. Epicurious looks interesting and I’d be checking it out right way for seeing free recipes, in case they fit in with ours.
Thanks for sharing all of these awesome food apps with us. Have a nice week and wonderful year ahead 🙂
Hi Harleena, Happy New Year to you too!
Yes, these apps offer a wide variety of ways to help you eat healthier. With over 30,000 recipes, Epicurious does have recipes from many different areas of the world. Perhaps you can find some favorites on either the app or the website.
HappyCow is an excellent resource for vegetarians and vegans to find food that works for them.
Happy eating, Harleena!
Great this Food appli list ! do you know “Evernote Food” ? I love it!
Hi V Geek, I’m glad you enjoyed this list. I tried Evernote Food a long time ago but didn’t really get into it. What about that app do you like?