Outstanding information, miserable search experience

I wanted an app that would let me easily look up the FODMAP status of ingredients. I tried 9 different apps, everything I could find in the App Store that seemed relevant, mostly paid apps.

This app provides ingredient lookups through its Guide section. The information is excellent, with not only a simple "thumbs up or down" rating but details on specific triggers and portion sizes.

I go to this app first. I trust the information. It seems authoritative. It covers as many ingredients as most other apps, and the information is well structured and easy to understand.

Minor problem: you must have a network connection for search to work. I assume thats so we can get the latest results from an online source. Cant complain too much. Lets say plus one for current information, and minus one for not just downloading the latest information to the device with each app update. That would probably make search faster, too.

Major problem: the search function is nothing short of broken. The problem is with the "show results as you type" feature. If they turned that off, making you type in the whole term and hit enter, it would be a better app. The search-as-you-type, though, is mind-bogglingly bad.

Example: look up "blackberry".

1. Type "b" and it says "no results". Really? No ingredients with a "b"?
2. Add an "l" for "bl" and there we go. Several results. But wait... no blackberries. And most of the results dont seem to include "bl" anywhere in the name.
3. Add an "a" for "bla" and... "no results" again. Huh?
4. Add a "c" for "blac" and there are even more results than for "bl", which is weird. But still no blackberries.
5. Go the whole way to "blackber" and... no results again.
6. Finally! When you reach "blackberr" youll see the result for blackberry.

Im a very experienced programmer. I respect the difficulty of getting things working. But this is really, really weaksauce stuff. Its a shame to mar such excellent information with such poor search functionality.

The apps works well for me otherwise.

Overall, its worth downloading the app. Just dont expect the live search to show anything meaningful.

Mr. Droog about Monash FODMAP Diet, v1.6.1