Food App Review of the Week: Food Truth

Food Truth
Developer: Bryan Hughes
Cost: Free
Runs on: iPhone, Android (coming soon)
Website: http://foodtruthonline.com
Version: 1.1

Do you want to know what’s in season and have a simple way of preparing seasonal dishes? That’s what Food Truth provides. This free app (seasonal expansion packs available for $2.99 each) includes items and recipes for all four seasons: winter and fall include 5 items, summer offers 20 and spring offers 23.

Upon opening the app you’re faced with four icons representing the four seasons in a very sharp design. Touching an icon reveals a full-screen image of that item—including fruits, vegetables and proteins—and a description of the nutritional content of that item and the benefits of that nutrition. For instance, the arugula description highlights that pregnant moms might want to eat the leafy green to increase folic acid to protect the growing fetus. These descriptions are brief (just a few sentences) and the font used is very small, although you can zoom in if needed.

Below each description are three preparation methods in order of difficulty: cinch, simple and sensational. This is where the app shows a few cracks.
To start, the loading of these pages feels a little sluggish and none of the preparation methods include an image of a final dish, which I found a bit surprising considering how visually appealing the rest of the app is.

The ingredient lists are bulleted, but the preparation methods are just single paragraphs, which I don’t believe is the best way to present cooking instructions. After reading through many of the recipes, even the sensational options seemed pretty remedial for anyone who has spent a modicum of time in the kitchen. Some of these descriptions take odd shortcuts, too. For example, instead of saying “salt & pepper to taste” they say “s&p to taste.” Are those few extra letters that precious? It took me a second to figure out what they were referring to and with such a simple and streamlined app, that’s not a good thing.

At the bottom of these pages are a series of social media buttons. As you scroll down the pages these stretch in an odd manner before snapping back into position where they were below. When you eventually click on them, you find that these are really just promotional buttons for the company and not for you to share what you’re doing. These just let you follow the company on the various networks, with the exception of Pinterest–that button showed an error message.

On the description page there are real share options; however, it was hit and miss. The e-mail option worked well, providing a screen shot of the description page, but the Facebook button gave me an error message. While being able to share the description was nice (although not a perfect offering, just a screen shot) I was disappointed that I couldn’t share the actual recipes.

It sounds like I’m down on this app, but I do think it offers value by showing what’s in season and how to whip up something quick in the kitchen. The developer clearly has skills and Food Truth sparkles on first glance, but the shine wears off as you begin to dig in. The app feels like a number one draft pick that isn’t living up to its abilities. I would love to see this app add a few more default items and provide more robust functionality.

I understand that the expansion packs are needed for revenue (although only available for spring and summer), but just five winter items isn’t enough to take up real estate on my phone. Currently, this is a seasonal app that’s not in season.

Toque Rating: 3/5