Are food label calories accurate

I know there's a 20% margin on some foods but I'm having a problem where on the label it says x amount of calories and when I scan the barcode and get the same type of food and brand it gives me a totally different number , almost double the amount or even less. Tried many apps but most don't recognize the label and the ones that do have the difference in calories. Is the label of nutrition on the package the most accurate way to know?

Answer

Depending in what app you’ve scanned with its just because some moron decided to be lazy with their input. I once scanned an organic mayo and the person who put it up claimed it was like 10grams of trans fat… hate to break it to them but it contained none.

No calorie tracking is ever 100% accurate whether it’s human error or the fact that not every ribeye steak or grain of rice is the same as their brothers. The point of tracking is just to get an average of that product. The error is perhaps so small that to worry about it is probably a sign you’re allowing an unhealthy habit to form.

Answer

It could be that someone entered the information wrong, OR that the recipe was modified at some point and the label has new info vs old info in the app.

Yes, the nutrition label would be the most accurate for that particular item of food.

FYI, you can modify the info in MyFitnessPal after scanning the barcode. If it’s wrong, select “Report food” - “wrong/missing info”, and then you can edit as needed and save the new item in your saved foods.