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Our Grocery Search Engine: What to Buy at the Grocery Store & Best Healthy Food Products

- Written by on April 18th 2015

The average supermarket has over 40,000 products, a fact that probably doesn't surprise you if you've ever tried to pick something new in the cereal aisle. With all these products, it can be hard to decide what to buy at the grocery store, especially if you have special dietary requirements or want to buy only healthy food products. Our grocery search has more than 80,000 products and will make it easy to find the right one, which you can quickly add to your weekly meal plan and shopping list.

what to buy at the grocery store

Here's how the supermarket search engine works.

On our homepage, you can search for products just as if you were searching for recipes. Just type in "blueberry muffins" or "ground beef." We'll try to determine from what you typed in whether you're looking for products or recipes. If we aren't sure if you want to make pizza or buy pizza, then we'll show you recipes first. All you have to do is click the "Products" tab to see store-bought pizzas instead.

store bought pizzas

Once you've clicked the product tab, we'll keep showing you products as you search, until you click back over to the "Recipes" tab. But spoonacular's grocery search can do more than just find products. We have analyzed ingredient lists, nutrition facts labels, and other product information to help you decide what to buy at the grocery store. In fact, we make it possible to find products that meet very specific requirements, such as...

Healthy Products

"Healthy" means different things to everyone, but you can use spoonacular to find healthy food products—whatever that means to you. For example, you can search for products without artificial colors and flavors, or products free from preservatives. You can search for "low sugar cereal" to see cereals ranked from least to most sugar:

best healthy food products

or you can find a treat that still helps you reach your goals, such as "high protein frozen yogurt":

best healthy greek yogurt

Products for Special Diets

You can also search for products that are gluten free, dairy free, nut free, etc. In these cases, ALWAYS double check with the manufacturer and read the ingredient label in the store yourself, as formulations can change and you want to be sure the product is truly suitable for your diet. Nonetheless, spoonacular is a great starting point in your research.

best gluten free products

Vegan, vegetarian, Paleo? No problem. You can find everything from veggie burgers to non-dairy yogurt to Paleo snacks with our search. Set your profile settings and you don't even have to type in "peanut free" or "vegan" every time you search, we'll do it automatically.

Products Good for your Conscience

Perhaps you've heard the phrase "Vote with your dollar." When you're deciding what foods to buy at the grocery store, you should consider which companies, agricultural practices, trade practices, etc. you are supporting. With spoonacular, you can search for everything from organic milk and pastured eggs to Fair Trade chocolate and GMO-free tortillas.

fair trade food products

Based on Your Taste

Of course, a supermarket search wouldn't be too useful if you couldn't even find foods that you just like. Vegetarian pizza without spinach? Check. Dark chocolate with almonds? Got it. Cinnamon bread without raisins? Done.

Compared to Similar Products

Finally, product pages offer one more special feature. When you click on a product for more information, you can also see how a product compares to similar products. For example, if you look at a standard iced coffee drink, you can find an unsweetened option with 20 fewer grams of sugar or a lightly sweetened option that cuts 70 calories. Forget standing at the store comparing label after label. We've done the work for you so you can choose the best healthy food products.

healthiest food products

Now that you've met our grocery search, don't miss this blog post explaining how you can use products in our free meal planner.

Author

Crystal Schlegelmilch

Written by on April 18th 2015

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