How to read your numbers.
Short guides to the amounts, daily intakes and food data behind every number in MorselMetrics, in plain English. No nutrition degree needed.
Start with the amount.
How to read whole-recipe, per-serving, macro and micronutrient results without turning every number into a score.
The number beside a nutrient describes the selected recipe or serving. Check the amount basis first, then the reference comparison underneath. Open “Why this number?” to follow a result back to its ingredients.
Amount, then comparison
A recipe amount and a daily reference answer different questions. MorselMetrics keeps them separate.
A reference. Not a score.
What RDI, AI, EAR, UL and other Australian and New Zealand reference values mean, and what they don’t.
RDI and AI are daily reference values for the selected profile. A reference bar shows a comparison, not a health score. Crossing 100% does not, by itself, mean an upper limit has been exceeded.
Sources & methods →RDI · AI · UL
RDI: Recommended Dietary Intake. AI: Adequate Intake. UL: Upper Level of Intake. An amount below an AI does not establish inadequacy.
Know the food behind it.
How the Australian Food Composition Database supports MorselMetrics and why preparation, variety and missing values matter.
MorselMetrics uses Australian food records. Similar ingredients can have different records for raw, cooked, canned or drained forms. Check the selected match, especially when a recipe uses an alternative ingredient.
Sources & methods →The source matters
AFCD means Australian Food Composition Database, published by Food Standards Australia New Zealand. MorselMetrics is not endorsed by FSANZ.
Your portion changes the picture.
Why a recipe total and a per-serving result answer different questions, and how changing servings affects the numbers.
Whole-recipe amounts describe the batch. Per-serving amounts divide that batch by the number of servings. In the planner, named people have their own assigned portions and references; prepared food totals describe all the food made.
People stay separate
Everyone compares named household members individually. It does not combine their requirements into one household target.
The smaller details.
A practical way to think about vitamins and minerals alongside energy, protein, carbohydrate and fat.
Explore vitamins and minerals in the analyser or look up their food sources in Explore foods. Keep the selected serving and reference profile in view when reading a comparison.
Explore food sources →Explore the food records
Each reported nutrient stays connected to its food source. A missing value remains marked as not reported.
Unknown stays unknown.
Source coverage and preparation evidence stay visible.
“Not reported” means the source has no available value. It does not mean zero. When only some ingredients report a nutrient, the amount can be incomplete. Source coverage and preparation evidence are shown separately.
Two kinds of evidence
A food record can report a nutrient even when the effect of further cooking is not supported by a reviewed factor.
Follow the calculation.
How ingredient gram weights are scaled and summed so the nutrition maths stays deterministic and inspectable.
MorselMetrics scales ingredient food records to the entered gram amounts and combines their contributions. Explicitly selected, supported preparation estimates are recorded separately. Open a nutrient row to inspect its food source, portion basis and available evidence.
Sources & methods →Look closer
A published cooking factor is an estimate, not a measurement of your meal. Missing evidence remains visible.
Every number has a source you can check.
See the food database we use, how daily intakes are chosen, the licences and the known limits.