# MealStack — Full Documentation

> The operating system for nutrition professionals. Built for India.

## Product Overview

MealStack is a nutrition practice management SaaS platform targeting Indian dietitians, nutritionists, health coaches, fitness professionals, and wellness clinics. It is a separate product within the Workfile ecosystem (alongside Workfile Store for eCommerce), sharing authentication (Workfile ID), billing, and infrastructure.

Most Indian dietitians run their practice on WhatsApp + Excel + Google Docs + pen-and-paper. MealStack replaces all of these with one integrated platform that saves 60-90 minutes per client on meal plan creation.

### Key Differentiators

1. **Combined Food Database**: The only platform with IFCT 2017 (Indian foods), INDB (Indian Nutritional Database), and USDA FoodData Central (international foods) — 9,349 foods in one unified search.
2. **Hindi & Regional Names**: Search "aloo" to find potato, "bhindi" to find okra. Native aliases, not a translation layer.
3. **Indian Portions**: Katori, roti, idli, dosa, tablespoon, cup — portions clients actually use.
4. **INR Pricing**: ₹1,499/mo starting price. Razorpay, UPI, net banking. GST-compliant invoicing.
5. **Clinical Grade**: SOAP & ADIME charting, body composition tracking, 80+ nutrients per food.

## Features

### Meal Plan Builder
- Day-based planning with customizable meal slots (breakfast, mid-morning, lunch, evening snack, dinner, bedtime)
- Real-time calorie, protein, carbs, fat totals per meal and per day
- Copy meals or entire days across the week
- Weekly 7-day grid view with drag-and-drop
- Meal plan versioning (track changes over consultations)
- Assign plans to clients with start/end dates

### Food Database
- IFCT 2017: 542 Indian foods, 80+ nutrients per food
- INDB: 1,014 Indian foods (expanded coverage)
- USDA FoodData Central: 7,793 international foods
- 9,349 total foods across all three databases
- Unified search across all databases with source indicator
- Hindi and regional name aliases (aloo, bhindi, batata, etc.)
- Indian portion sizes (katori, roti, idli, dosa, tablespoon, cup)
- Side-by-side food comparison with opposing nutrient bars
- Calorie density badges (VL/L/M/H) on every food
- Visual macro bars (protein, carbs, fat) in search results
- Inline actions: favorite, compare, copy nutrients, clone as custom food
- Favorite foods list per practitioner

### AI-Powered Custom Food Creation
- "Fill with AI" — type a food name, AI fills 20+ fields in one click (free, no credit cost)
- AI fills: macros (energy, protein, carbs, fat, fiber, sugars), minerals (calcium, iron, potassium, sodium, zinc), vitamins (A, B9, B12, C, D), portions with Hindi names, food category, dietary type, description, meal suitability, glycemic index, allergens, search aliases, and Hindi/regional names
- Context-aware estimation: select Homemade, Restaurant, Packaged, Raw, or Street Food for more accurate values
- AI refine: after initial fill, type "deep-fried version" or "Amul brand" and re-fill with updated context
- Confidence levels (high/medium/low) shown on every AI estimation
- Based on IFCT 2017, USDA SR, and NIN reference values

### Nutrition Label Scanner
- Snap a photo of any packaged food nutrition label
- GPT-4o vision extracts all nutrient values automatically
- Handles Indian FSSAI labels (sodium vs salt, kcal vs kJ, veg/non-veg dot symbols)
- Auto-detects per-serving vs per-100g and converts accordingly
- Extracts product name, brand name, serving size, and dietary type
- Costs 1 AI credit per scan
- Works with Amul, Britannia, MTR, Haldiram's, protein bars, supplements, and any printed label

### Custom Food Features
- Quick Add sheet for rapid food entry (name + macros only)
- Full custom food dialog with all fields
- Label input mode: enter per-serving values from packaging, auto-converts to per-100g
- Category-aware portion presets (beverages get glass/cup, grains get katori/roti, fruits get piece/slice)
- Allergen tagging with 9 common allergens (gluten, dairy, nuts, peanuts, soy, egg, fish, shellfish, sesame)
- Glycemic index classification (low/medium/high)
- Meal suitability classification (early morning, breakfast, mid-morning, lunch, evening snack, dinner, bedtime)
- Live macro donut visualization during food creation
- Auto-calculated calories from macros (P×4 + C×4 + F×9)
- Completeness indicator showing which fields are filled
- Duplicate detection with fuzzy name matching
- Barcode field for packaged foods
- Clone any database food as a custom food for modification

### Client Management
- Client profiles: name, age, gender, phone, email, medical conditions, allergies
- Health records: height, weight, BMI (auto-calculated)
- Goal setting: target weight, target calories, dietary preferences (veg/non-veg/vegan/eggetarian)
- Consultation notes per visit
- Tags, labels, status (active, inactive, archived)
- Search, filter, sort

### Clinical Charting
- SOAP note templates (Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan)
- ADIME format (Assessment, Diagnosis, Intervention, Monitoring, Evaluation)
- Custom note templates
- Visit history timeline per client
- File attachments (lab reports, prescriptions, photos)

### Templates & Recipes
- Condition-based starter templates: diabetes, PCOS, thyroid, weight loss, weight gain, pregnancy, postpartum
- Save any meal plan as reusable template
- Recipe builder from database ingredients with auto-calculated nutrition
- Recipe scaling (adjust servings, auto-recalculate)

### PDF & WhatsApp Sharing
- Branded PDF exports with practitioner logo, name, contact
- Per-nutrient visibility controls — hide specific macros (calories, protein, carbs, fat, fiber) from client-facing PDFs and portal
- Three-level cascade: practice defaults → per-client override → per-plan override → per-export override
- Useful for eating disorder recovery, client comfort, or simplified meal plans
- One-tap WhatsApp sharing via wa.me links
- Customizable branding (logo, colors, footer text)

### Scheduling
- Appointment booking with diet-specific types (initial consultation, follow-up, review)
- Email/SMS reminders
- Google Calendar sync
- Client self-booking links

## Pricing

All prices in INR, inclusive of GST. Annual plans save ~17%.

| Plan | Monthly | Annual | Clients | Key Features |
|------|---------|--------|---------|-------------|
| Free | ₹0 | ₹0 | 3 | IFCT database, basic meal planning, 10 AI credits |
| Starter | ₹1,499 | ₹14,999/yr | 25 | IFCT + INDB + USDA, 150 AI credits/mo, client portal, invoicing |
| Pro | ₹2,999 | ₹29,999/yr | Unlimited | 750 AI credits/mo, reports, branding removal, custom permissions |
| Clinic | ₹6,999 | ₹69,999/yr | Unlimited | 2,500 AI credits/mo, 15 team members, white-label, API access |

## Target Audience

- **Solo Dietitians**: Independent practitioners with 10-50 clients
- **Clinic Owners**: Multi-practitioner clinics with 100-500 clients
- **Fitness Coaches**: Gym/fitness professionals adding nutrition services
- **Health Coaches**: Wellness/lifestyle coaches
- **Clinical Nutritionists**: Hospital/clinical settings requiring SOAP/ADIME documentation

## Technical Details

- Built with Next.js 16, React 19, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS 4
- Drizzle ORM + Supabase PostgreSQL
- tRPC v11 for type-safe APIs
- Better Auth for authentication (Workfile ID SSO)
- Cloudflare R2 for media storage
- Deployed on Vercel

## Free Tools

MealStack offers free nutrition tools (no login required) for Indian users:

- Calorie Calculator (https://mealstack.io/tools/calorie-calculator): Look up calories and macros for Indian foods from the IFCT/INDB/USDA database
- BMI Calculator (https://mealstack.io/tools/bmi-calculator): BMI calculation with Indian population norms and WHO Asia-Pacific cutoffs
- TDEE Calculator (https://mealstack.io/tools/tdee-calculator): Total daily energy expenditure based on activity level
- Protein Calculator (https://mealstack.io/tools/protein-calculator): Daily protein requirements by body weight and activity
- Meal Plan Template (https://mealstack.io/tools/meal-plan-template): Downloadable 7-day Indian meal plan templates

## Food Database (Public)

MealStack's food database is publicly browsable at https://mealstack.io/foods with individual pages for each of the 9,349 foods. Each food page shows complete nutrition facts (80+ nutrients), portion sizes, dietary type, database source, and calorie density classification.

## Competitor Comparisons

- MealStack vs NutriAdmin: https://mealstack.io/vs/nutriadmin
- MealStack vs Foodzilla: https://mealstack.io/vs/foodzilla
- MealStack vs Nutrium: https://mealstack.io/vs/nutrium
- MealStack vs Excel: https://mealstack.io/vs/excel

## Blog

Nutrition practice tips, software guides, and Indian dietitian resources: https://mealstack.io/blog

## Links

- Home: https://mealstack.io
- Features: https://mealstack.io/features
- Why MealStack: https://mealstack.io/why-mealstack
- Pricing: https://mealstack.io/pricing
- For Dietitians: https://mealstack.io/for-dietitians
- For Clinics: https://mealstack.io/for-clinics
- Client Portal: https://mealstack.io/client-portal
- Food Database: https://mealstack.io/foods
- Blog: https://mealstack.io/blog
- Free Tools: https://mealstack.io/tools
- Parent Company: https://workfile.io
- Contact: https://workfile.io/contact