Working in tech means deadlines, odd hours, and a plate full of whatever was easiest to order. Suffice it to say that my eating habits took a hit. And checking the nutrition label on every packet is too much of a hassle for me. So when my editor recommended I test out the new Look Up Nutrition feature with Siri AI in the iOS 27 Camera app, I took it as another assignment to complete while gulping the next tasty treat. But in a week of testing this feature, it has made me more aware of my snacking than any amount of guilt before.
How Siri AI's Nutrition Feature Actually Works
Look Up Nutrition is one of the new iOS 27 features that are a part of the new Siri AI mode in Camera app. It works by pointing the camera at a food item and scanning it to gather relevant details like processing level, protein, fat type, and added sugar from the food label and the internet. Based on all these factors, it gives a nutritional rating to the food that ranges from Very High to Very Low.
The idea is to provide a basic idea of whether the food is nutritionally healthy for you or not, instead of showing a table of numbers that are confusing to read. This is why I don't use any other calorie tracker app since I am too lazy to bother about every macro aspect of the food that I am having. Just tell me whether it is good for me or not, and that's more than enough.
Look Up Nutrition Is Impressive Until It Isn't
I started testing it on my iPhone Air after installing the iOS 27 developer beta, and the first thing I used the Look Up Nutrition feature on was a packet of nachos that is a part of my evening routine. Then a sweet packet of pudding, which was supposed to be my dessert of the day.
But seeing both come back with poor ratings was a small but necessary slap. Later that day, I ran to my local supermarket, scanning the snack aisle, looking for a healthy alternative to the garbage I usually munch on. Most of them turned out to have a "Low Nutritional Value" result, being highly processed, high in added sugar and containing trans fat.
Over the week, I tried Look Up Nutrition on other items that would usually be a part of my meal, like burgers, pizza, garlic bread, toast, and salads, and gave a similar healthy-or-not rating to each of them.
But one place where I found the Siri AI struggling is with regional foods. Like a packet of spicy murukku, which is a deep-fried South Indian snack, it couldn't give me a proper result. One day, I was eating paneer gravy, and the Siri camera confidently logged it as butter chicken. Close, if you ignore that it has no chicken in it at all.
Drinks are another blind spot. When I pointed my iPhone's camera at a can of Coke Zero, the Siri Camera mode quickly described it, but the Look Up Nutrition pop-up didn't appear. This happened with some other drinks as well, even when the camera was looking straight at the nutrition label. I would chalk all this up to beta bugs, and Apple might improve the recognition close to the final release.
Promising for Casual Eaters, Not Enough for Serious Tracking Yet
However, I couldn't help but notice that there is a lack of calories and macros that the Siri AI Nutrition is supposed to mention in the Apple Health app. All I saw were the basic High and Low nutritional ratings along with some surface-level insights. I am assuming that this is another one of those beta limitations for the time being.
So, for anyone counting macros or deep into fitness, a dedicated nutrition app still wins. They carry far wider databases and give exact numbers down to the gram, which is the kind of precision a serious health junkie or anyone into their weight loss journey would need.
Beta issues aside, I would say that Siri AI's Look Up Nutrition feature has done one thing I needed: make me aware of my unhealthy eating choices. It gives a very basic breakdown, which could sometimes be inaccurate or not the details I need. But for a distracted eater who would never read a label, it is already one of the useful features in iOS 27, right alongside the new Describe a Shortcut feature.
