Which app calculates the vitamins and minerals in what I eat?

If you live in Spain and want to know how much vitamin D, iron, calcium or folate you actually get in a day, not just the calories, our answer is vitaloop. It works fully in English, but it was built here: it knows the food you buy at the Spanish supermarket and reads your shopping by its barcode, labels in Spanish included. It calculates 42 nutrients for every meal, packaged products included. We make it, so we are not neutral. What we can promise is that everything we say about other apps was checked on their own websites, help centres and Spanish App Store listings on 10 October 2026.

Why vitamins and minerals are worth a look

Because in Spain many people fall short of the recommended intake of some of them, and hardly anyone knows it. The most complete data come from the ANIBES study: 2,009 people aged 9 to 75, a representative sample of Spain, who recorded everything they ate and drank for three days. Its results, published in peer-reviewed journals:

• Calcium, magnesium and vitamin D. 66%, 72% and 93% of the sample respectively reported an intake below 80% of the European recommended intake (Olza et al., Nutrients, 2017). Among the people whose records were most plausible, the share was still above 40%.
• Zinc and vitamins A, E and C. 83% fell short of the EFSA recommended intake for zinc, 80% for vitamin E, 60% for vitamin A, 36% for vitamin C and 25% for selenium (Olza et al., Nutrients, 2017).
• Folate. Few participants had an adequate intake, and the authors conclude it needs improving (Partearroyo et al., PLoS One, 2017).

It is not all bad news, and that is worth saying: in the same study, vitamin B12 intake was adequate for practically everyone, and most people met their thiamin (71%), riboflavin (72%), vitamin B6 (77%) and niacin (99%) intakes (Mielgo-Ayuso et al., Nutrients, 2018). The point is not that everyone lacks everything. It is that what falls short differs from one person to the next, and the only way to know about yours is to look.

Two honest caveats. These figures measure what people report eating, not blood tests: a low intake is not the same as a deficiency. And most vitamin D is made in the skin in sunlight, so what comes from food is only part of the total. (ANIBES was funded by a grant from Coca-Cola Iberia through the Spanish Nutrition Foundation; the authors state the funder had no role in the analysis or the writing.)

What an app has to do to get this right

Nearly every nutrition app says it “tracks vitamins and minerals”. For the number to mean something, five things must hold:

1. A complete panel. An app that tracks five micronutrients cannot tell you anything about folate, zinc or magnesium.
2. Packaged products too. The EU label only has to declare energy, fat, saturates, carbohydrate, sugars, protein and salt (Regulation (EU) 1169/2011). Vitamins and minerals usually appear only if the manufacturer chooses. An app that only reads the label leaves the panel empty for much of what you eat.
3. Reference values for you. A 30-year-old woman does not need what a 60-year-old man needs. And in Europe the reference is set by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).
4. Supplements in the same sum. If you take vitamin D or iron, what matters is the total, not two separate lists.
5. Honesty about the gaps. Food composition tables have almost no data on some nutrients. A serious app does not paint those red as if you were short of them.

How vitaloop does it

42 nutrients in every food

Whatever you log, by hand, by barcode or with a photo, is calculated in the same 42 fields: energy and macros, fat quality, omega-3 (with EPA + DHA on their own), 13 vitamins, 13 minerals, water, alcohol and caffeine. The data come from the USDA food composition tables and the European ANSES-CIQUAL table, with each food's source recorded.

Vitamins and minerals in packaged products

Scan the barcode (free) and vitaloop looks the product up in Open Food Facts, the open database of packaged food. Then, with Pro, it estimates the product's full vitamin and mineral profile from its ingredient list: it matches each ingredient to our food database, estimates the proportions while keeping any percentages the label declares, and adds up the result in the same 42 fields. Whatever the label declares always wins over the estimate.

As far as we know, none of the other apps in the table below offers anything like it. In our comparison of nutrition apps you will see that Fitia also estimates missing values, but sums them up as a daily score rather than showing you the milligrams.

European reference values, for your age and sex

27 of the 42 nutrients have a reference value personalised by age and sex, the great majority of them from EFSA, the body that advises the EU. Each value names its source, and you can change any target your dietitian has set differently.

Supplements, in the same totals

A catalogue of 1,065 supplements, and if yours is missing you can scan its label (Pro). What you take as supplements is added to what you eat, so you see your real total for each vitamin.

No false alarms

Food composition tables have very little data on iodine, chromium, biotin, manganese or pantothenic acid. vitaloop marks them with an asterisk instead of calling them shortfalls. And for vitamin D it reminds you that the figure only counts what you ate: it is a floor on your total, not the total.

What to do about what is missing

• “For you, now”. When you log a meal, vitaloop tells you whether it helps with what you are short of this week. Free.
• Meal ideas built around the vitamins and minerals that are below your reference this week, respecting your allergies and intolerances (Pro).
• An assistant that explains it. A weekly report that tells you what it found in your data and which sources each conclusion rests on. More on vitaloop's nutrition assistant.
• Science with sources. Each nutrient has its own page with information drawn from published studies and a link to the source, and the app gathers every reference it uses in one place.

Made in Spain, in three languages

vitaloop is made in Barcelona by Vitaloop Labs, SL. English is one of its three native languages, alongside Spanish and Catalan, not an afterthought. The catalogue includes Spanish dishes such as salmorejo, marmitako and pulpo a la gallega, prices are in euros with VAT included, and your data are stored on EU servers under the GDPR.

What about the other apps?

These are the apps that come up today when you search for an app that calculates vitamins and minerals. Everything below comes from their own website, help centre or Spanish App Store listing.

• Cronometer tracks up to 95 nutrients and compounds, and its list of paid (Gold) features adds no nutrients. Its targets come from the US Dietary Reference Intakes, not the European ones. If you read English, its being English-only is no obstacle.
• Fitatu, from Poland, lists on its Spanish App Store page calories and macros plus “39 vitamins and nutrients”, a count that includes fibre, sodium, cholesterol and caffeine. It has products from chains such as Mercadona and Lidl. It does not say where its targets come from, nor that it estimates what packaged products leave out.
• NutriScan tracks 11 micronutrients: vitamins A, C, D, E, K and B12, calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc and omega-3.
• MyFitnessPal, according to its help centre, tracks vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, iron and potassium, against the same targets for everyone (the US Daily Values). It has no built-in supplement log: it suggests writing them in your notes or creating them as a food.

So, is vitaloop for you?

If you want to know your vitamins and minerals against European reference values, including what you buy packaged at a Spanish supermarket, vitaloop is for you.

vitaloop is free on the App Store and Google Play, for iPhone, iPad and Android phones and tablets. The free plan already includes micronutrients, manual logging and the barcode scanner; Pro costs €9.90 a month or €49.90 a year, VAT included. If you are comparing apps more broadly, start with the best nutrition apps in Spain.