The Food Intelligence Engine
What is Lens?
Lens reads every recipe the way a careful parent would — checking allergens, kid-appeal, weeknight effort, cost, leftovers, and what’s already in your pantry. Then it turns all of that into one number you can trust: the Family Score.
No black box. Every score shows its work — so you can see why a dish fits your table, not just that it does.
Chicken Adobo
Filipino · weeknight braise
- Allergen-friendly 80
- Kid-friendly 55
- Weeknight-easy 54
- Budget-friendly 86
- Great leftovers 87
- Pantry-friendly 66
What Lens reads on every dish
Six dimensions, one number
Each recipe is scored 0–100 on six things that decide whether it actually works for a family. Allergen-friendliness carries the most weight — because safety leads.
Allergen-friendliness
How broadly servable a dish is — fewer of the top-9 allergens present, higher the score.
Kid-friendliness
Familiar flavors, low heat, and a recognizable form kids actually eat.
Weeknight feasibility
Active time, step count, and cleanup minutes — can you really make it on a Tuesday?
Budget-friendliness
Estimated cost per serving measured against the catalog median.
Leftover & make-ahead value
How well it reheats, holds, and batches for the days after.
Pantry-commonness
The share of ingredients that are everyday staples you likely already have.
The Family Score, in the open
A formula, not a vibe
The Family Score is a fixed weighted average of the six dimensions. Same recipe, same score — every time, no model, no randomness. Here is the exact weighting:
| Dimension | Weight |
|---|---|
| Allergen-friendliness | 25% |
| Kid-friendliness | 20% |
| Weeknight feasibility | 20% |
| Budget-friendliness | 15% |
| Leftover & make-ahead value | 10% |
| Pantry-commonness | 10% |
The public Family Score is a generic family-suitability signal — not a safety claim. A high score can still be unsafe for your household. That’s exactly what Household Lens is for.
Chicken Adobo
How the score is built
- Allergen-friendly 80
- Kid-friendly 55
- Weeknight-easy 54
- Budget-friendly 86
- Great leftovers 87
- Pantry-friendly 66
The lead pillar — allergy intelligence
Allergens are a gate, not a score
Lens reads the hidden sources most apps miss — the peanuts in kare-kare, the shellfish in bagoong, the fish sauce in a curry. Every allergen comes from our own verified data, the same way every time — never guessed from a recipe’s wording. And in Household Lens, a banned allergen can never be “averaged away” by a high kid score: it’s a hard safety verdict, shown on its own.
- Fixed allergen rules, from our own verified data
- Hidden-ingredient detection across cuisines
- A safety verdict separate from the Family Score
- Removals are surfaced, never silent
Kare-Kare
PeanutLens caught a hidden peanut source in the sauce — swap suggested.
Chicken Adobo
ClearNo top-9 allergens detected in the base recipe.
Generic is free · personal is Pro
The same dish, scored for your family
The public Family Score asks “is this good for families?” Household Lens asks “is this good for yours?” — recomputed against your allergies, your kids’ tastes, your pantry, and your budget.
Chicken Adobo is a solid all-round family dish — cheap, with brilliant leftovers.
Unsafe as written for Arya — peanut in the suggested garnish.
- · Missing 3 pantry items you’d need to buy
- · ~$4 over your weeknight target
- · Arjay dislikes one ingredient
Suggested fixes: swap the garnish (safe), use the soy you already have, halve the portion.
See Household Lens in action — re-score a recipe for your family, then meet the weekly cards. Part of Listahan Pro — $5/mo, 14-day free trial.
What the badge means
A recipe is Lens Verified once the Lens engine has analyzed it — allergen tags computed and its Family Score generated. Every recipe in the library carries it, and the bar stays there as the library grows: each new recipe and cuisine is Lens Verified before it lands. A collection you can trust dish by dish — built for your family, not left for you to check yourself.
It means analyzed by the Lens engine — and explicitly not human or professional certification. Same spirit as “guidance, not medical advice.” Our most popular dishes go further with a human-reviewed Lens Brief — technique notes, swaps, and pairings — layered on top.
Confidence & limitations
- — The public Family Score is a suitability signal, not a safety guarantee.
- — Allergen checks are guidance. Always read labels yourself; this isn’t medical advice.
- — Scores come from the recipe as written — your changes can move them.
- — We only publish values we compute; no review counts or ratings are invented.
See Lens on every recipe
Browse the full library free — every dish carries its Family Score and allergen tags. Add Pro for Household Lens whenever you’re ready.