1. Scan
You scan the barcode on a package. The barcode is read on the device; no image leaves it.
Product data and attribution
Cook It Again can use a barcode to ask for basic packaged-product information. Your cooking settings are always your own.
How barcode lookup works
2. Check the device first
The app looks in your own saved items before anything else. If you have cooked it before, your settings come straight back and no request is made at all.
3. Ask, only if needed
For a barcode you have never saved, the app may ask Open Food Facts for a name, brand, and package size — one request, no retry — and shows you the result to confirm or correct.
Worth being clear about
- A barcode is an identifier. It does not contain cooking instructions.
- A lookup can return a name, a brand, and a package size. It never returns a cooking setup — those are yours.
- Custom Dish names, ingredients, and notes are never looked up or transmitted.
- Items you have already saved work with no network connection.
- You can skip the lookup entirely and type the details yourself.
Open Food Facts
Open Food Facts is a collaborative, free, open database of food products built by volunteers around the world. Cook It Again uses it for one narrow purpose: turning a barcode you have not saved into a name you recognise.
Product data from Open Food Facts is made available under the Open Database License (ODbL). Cook It Again displays it as an aid to identifying a package and stores only the fields you accept.
What a lookup sends
A lookup sends the barcode and the ordinary metadata any web request carries, including your IP address, which Open Food Facts receives. Nothing about you, your settings, your Custom Dishes, or your history is sent — and no request is made at all for an item you have already saved.