How accurate Kove is.

Weighed foods.

The test uses 37 foods, each written with its weight, like “150 g cooked rice”. The model alone was 94.5% accurate; Kove was 100%, because it used the data from the reference sources 98% of the time and kept the estimate otherwise. Within 10% of the right figure: the model more than two times in three, Kove every time.

Sent again, the same sentence was 100% consistent with the model alone, and 100% with Kove.

So when Kove finds the food, what it logs is that figure exactly. This part measures how often it finds the right food, not whether a table is right about your plate.

Food group	Model alone	Kove
Pasta, rice, bread and grains	94.5%	100%
Legumes	86.9%	100%
Meat, fish and eggs	87.6%	100%
Dairy	95.4%	100%
Fruit, vegetables, nuts and oil	98%	100%
Sweets and drinks	89.9%	100%
Branded products	99.2%	100%

All 37 foods, one by one

Input	Reference	Model alone	Kove logged	Looked up
80 g of pasta	291 kcal Ciqual	297 kcal 98%	291 kcal 100%	6/6
200 g of cooked pasta	334 kcal Ciqual	316 kcal 94.6%	334 kcal 100%	6/6
70 g of rice	245 kcal Ciqual	254 kcal 96.5%	245 kcal 100%	6/6
150 g of cooked rice	233 kcal Ciqual	195 kcal 83.9%	233 kcal 100%	6/6
40 g of rolled oats	148 kcal Ciqual	156 kcal 94.3%	148 kcal 100%	6/6
60 g of quinoa	215 kcal Ciqual	221 kcal 97.1%	215 kcal 100%	6/6
60 g of white bread	172 kcal Ciqual	160 kcal 92.9%	172 kcal 100%	6/6
200 g of boiled potatoes	162 kcal Ciqual	174 kcal 92.6%	162 kcal 100%	6/6
230 g of canned chickpeas, drained	281 kcal Ciqual	320 kcal 86%	281 kcal 100%	6/6
50 g of dry lentils	164 kcal Ciqual	176 kcal 92.4%	164 kcal 100%	6/6
150 g of cooked beans	168 kcal Ciqual	190 kcal 86.9%	168 kcal 100%	6/6
150 g of grilled chicken breast	212 kcal Ciqual	248 kcal 82.7%	212 kcal 100%	6/6
120 g of chicken breast, weighed raw	132 kcal Ciqual	144 kcal 90.9%	132 kcal 100%	6/6
150 g of cooked salmon	308 kcal Ciqual	309 kcal 99.5%	308 kcal 100%	6/6
80 g of tuna in oil, drained	154 kcal Ciqual	158 kcal 97.1%	154 kcal 100%	6/6
2 hard-boiled eggs (120 g)	161 kcal Ciqual	186 kcal 84.3%	161 kcal 100%	6/6
50 g of prosciutto	115 kcal Ciqual	135 kcal 82.6%	115 kcal 100%	6/6
125 g of Greek yogurt	129 kcal Ciqual	120 kcal 93.2%	129 kcal 100%	6/6
200 ml of whole milk	128 kcal Ciqual	122 kcal 95.5%	128 kcal 100%	6/6
125 g of mozzarella	284 kcal Ciqual	350 kcal 76.7%	284 kcal 100%	6/6
30 g of parmesan	123 kcal Ciqual	129 kcal 95.4%	123 kcal 100%	6/6
a 150 g apple	81 kcal Ciqual	78 kcal 96.3%	81 kcal 100%	6/6
a 120 g banana	105 kcal Ciqual	107 kcal 98.2%	105 kcal 100%	6/6
200 g of courgettes	33 kcal Ciqual	34 kcal 98.2%	33 kcal 100%	6/6
100 g of blueberries	58 kcal Ciqual	57 kcal 98.8%	58 kcal 100%	6/6
30 g of almonds	185 kcal Ciqual	174 kcal 94.3%	185 kcal 100%	6/6
10 g of olive oil	90 kcal Ciqual	88 kcal 97.9%	90 kcal 100%	6/6
20 g of dark chocolate	104 kcal Ciqual	120 kcal 84.8%	104 kcal 100%	6/6
15 g of honey	50 kcal Ciqual	46 kcal 92.6%	50 kcal 99.9%	6/6
330 ml of beer	129 kcal Ciqual	140 kcal 91.2%	129 kcal 100%	6/6
150 ml of red wine	114 kcal Ciqual	125 kcal 89.9%	114 kcal 100%	6/6
a 170 g Fage Total 5% yogurt	158 kcal Open Food Facts	165 kcal 95.6%	158 kcal 100%	6/6
80 g of Barilla spaghetti	287 kcal Open Food Facts	288 kcal 99.7%	286 kcal 99.5%	6/6
one Kinder Bueno bar (21.5 g)	123 kcal Open Food Facts	123 kcal 99.6%	123 kcal 100%	6/6
15 g of Nutella	81 kcal Open Food Facts	81 kcal 99.8%	81 kcal 99.9%	6/6
a 330 ml Coca-Cola Zero	1 kcal Open Food Facts	1 kcal 100%	1 kcal 100%	1/6
a Big Mac (232 g)	530 kcal Open Food Facts	550 kcal 96.2%	530 kcal 100%	6/6

Of 328 messages describing food, Kove logged 328 (100%). It never stopped to ask for a figure it did not have.

Raw or cooked.

Some foods weigh differently raw and cooked. Pasta, rice and legumes, for example, weigh about twice as much cooked, so 80 g of pasta can be either 290 kcal or 130. Packs usually state their figures dry, so a weight with nothing specified means dry. A plate, a bowl or the word cooked means cooked, and a jar means drained.

When a weight came with no word for cooked or dry, the model read it as dry, the way the pack states it, in 100% of 24 sentences. Kove shows that reading beside the amount, so a wrong reading can be fixed on the spot in chat.

Portions from words.

Say “a plate of pasta” and Kove guesses a weight. CREA's Italian dietary guidelines give each food a standard portion as a raw weight, so a cooked guess is turned into its raw weight before the two are compared. The guesses were 80% accurate against the standard portion, and within 20% of it more than half the time.

Input	Standard portion	Kove's guess
a plate of pasta with tomato sauce	80 g	115 g
a portion of plain rice	80 g	89 g
a portion of bread	50 g	60 g
an apple	150 g	180 g
a pot of plain yogurt	125 g	125 g
a glass of milk	125 g	220 g
a portion of grilled chicken breast	100 g	192 g
a portion of baked salmon	150 g	159 g
a hard-boiled egg	50 g	50 g
a tablespoon of olive oil	10 g	14 g
a portion of parmesan	50 g	30 g

This tests whether a guess is a sensible portion. What you actually ate is only known when you weigh it or say it, and a weight or a calorie count you give always wins over Kove's guess.

Photos.

20 plates weighed in a lab, photographed from above and read the way a picture in chat is read: described, estimated, logged. Kove read 40 of 40, and the estimates it logged were 79.1% accurate against the ones measured in the lab, within 20% half the time.

All 20 plates

Plate	Weighed	Measured	Kove logged
Brown rice, pork, mixed greens	193 g	301 kcal	295 kcal
Pork, mixed greens, green beans	292 g	419 kcal	509 kcal
Caesar salad, pork, wheat berries	290 g	383 kcal	395 kcal
Scrambled eggs, egg whites, yam	271 g	309 kcal	193 kcal
Broccoli, chicken breast, squash	332 g	246 kcal	344 kcal
Salmon, beef, squash	750 g	1,116 kcal	979 kcal
Potatoes, almonds	122 g	274 kcal	277 kcal
Caesar salad, roasted potatoes, pork	479 g	664 kcal	999 kcal
Sweet potato, egg whites, berries	257 g	274 kcal	239 kcal
Caesar salad, pepperoni pizza, raw spinach	256 g	327 kcal	516 kcal
Pork, pepperoni pizza, cauliflower	315 g	455 kcal	512 kcal
Watermelon, pineapple, cottage cheese	483 g	352 kcal	350 kcal
Chicken, raw spinach, green beans	256 g	330 kcal	270 kcal
Scrambled eggs, berries, pineapple	415 g	420 kcal	405 kcal
Roasted potatoes, cauliflower, chicken	264 g	258 kcal	350 kcal
Egg whites, sweet potato, salsa	871 g	490 kcal	251 kcal
Egg whites, cantaloupe, sweet potato	753 g	402 kcal	491 kcal
Chicken breast, cheese pizza, brownies	435 g	1,030 kcal	700 kcal
Fish, eggplant, roasted potatoes	425 g	385 kcal	352 kcal
Cherry tomatoes, cantaloupe, cauliflower	303 g	359 kcal	246 kcal

These are cafeteria plates from California, photographed from above in the same lab light, so a plate of pasta at home can land closer or further.

What this does not measure.

Sources.

Ciqual and USDA are official tables, measured by public bodies: the French food safety agency and the United States Department of Agriculture. Open Food Facts carries the figures from product labels. This test checks that Kove uses their figures, but it does not measure them again.

Even an official source can be wrong about a food. When one is, say the right figure: a number you give is logged as you said it, and Kove looks nothing up in that message.

What you actually ate.

A table's apple is an average apple. Yours can be sweeter, and a portion is only known when you weigh it or say it. Kove writes down what it assumed, so the day stays checkable.

Regional dishes.

A burek or a piadina varies more from one bakery to the next than any table varies by error, and no open table is likely to carry them. Kove logs its own estimate, and the second time you have one it offers to keep it as your own food, so the next one logs the same figures.

Sources.

• ANSES Ciqual 2025, the French food composition table, under the Etalab Open Licence 2.0: Anses. 2025. Table de composition nutritionnelle des aliments Ciqual. ciqual.anses.fr
• USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy and FNDDS, in the public domain. fdc.nal.usda.gov
• Open Food Facts, © Open Food Facts contributors, under the Open Database License. Kove keeps a filtered copy: every product sold in Italy, plus those scanned most elsewhere. The filter that makes the copy. openfoodfacts.org
• Nutrition5k, weighed plates and photos by Thames et al., 2021, under CC BY 4.0. The photos here are resized. Nutrition5k on GitHub
• CREA, Linee guida per una sana alimentazione (2018), for the standard portions. crea.gov.it