Health, nutrition and AI disclaimer

Automeal is operated by Sacristan Ltd, registered in England and Wales.

Not medical advice

Automeal gives general information about food and nutrition to help healthy adults plan meals. It is not medical, dietetic or nutritional therapy advice, and it doesn't diagnose, treat or manage any health condition.

Talk to your GP or a registered dietitian before changing your diet, especially if you:

• are pregnant, trying to get pregnant or breastfeeding
• have diabetes, heart, kidney or liver disease, or another medical condition
• take medication that's affected by food
• have, or have had, an eating disorder
• are recovering from illness or surgery

Calorie and macro targets

Your targets are estimates. We use the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, an activity multiplier and your answers. Everyone's body is different, so your real needs may be higher or lower.

To keep things safe we never suggest going below your estimated resting energy, or below 1,200 kcal a day (women) or 1,500 kcal a day (men). We cap fat loss at 500 kcal a day and 1% of body weight a week. We don't set a calorie deficit if you're pregnant or breastfeeding, if your BMI is under 18.5, or if you're under 18. These limits are cautious defaults, not medical clearance.

Eating disorders and wellbeing

If tracking food or weight is making you anxious, take a break: you can hide numbers in Settings. If you're worried about your eating, you're not alone. Beat, the UK's eating disorder charity, can help on 0808 801 0677 (England). The lines are open 3pm–8pm, Monday to Friday. For Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, see Beat's helpline page (opens in a new tab). You can also speak to your GP, call NHS 111, or call Samaritans on 116 123.

Allergens and intolerances

We use the allergens you tell us about to hide recipes (severe allergy) or warn you (avoid). Allergen information comes from public food databases and product data that can be incomplete, out of date or wrong, and manufacturers change recipes.

• We can't guarantee any recipe, product or ingredient is free from an allergen.
• Always check the label of everything you buy and cook, every time.
• Supermarket links open a search on the retailer's site; we don't check those results for allergens.
• Cross-contamination in your kitchen is outside what Automeal can know.
• If you think someone is having a severe allergic reaction (anaphylaxis), call 999 and use an adrenaline auto-injector if they have one.

Nutrition data

Nutrition values come from UK CoFID, USDA FoodData Central and Open Food Facts. Amounts from photo scans are estimates. Values for cooked food, portion sizes and branded products may differ from what you actually eat.

AI features

Photo scan and Ask Automeal use artificial intelligence.

• AI can miss, misidentify or invent items and can give answers that are wrong, incomplete or out of date. Check scan results before saving them, and check any answer before relying on it.
• Ask is designed to refuse medical questions and to keep your allergy filters on. It's not a substitute for a professional.
• Don't use Ask in an emergency. Call 999 or NHS 111.
• Nutrient numbers in Ask come from our food database, not from the AI.

Supermarket and affiliate links

We're not affiliated with the supermarkets we link to and don't sell food. Prices, availability and product details are the retailer's responsibility.