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Initially, we worried a lot about the recipe component to our site. We didn't know was external databases existed and to what degree we could specify queries to such sites. This was a somewhat risky component, but also made our site unique, so we pushed forward. This was the correct choice. While it took a lot of tinkering, our recipe page is elegant and functions handsomely. Selecting milk and asparagus brings up soup recipes, and even returns nothing when those two ingredients are selected with the no dairy option.
Due to our recipe stuggles struggles early on, we didn't focus as much on food item entry, when in fact is somewhat risky too. A tedious entry process would keep people from using the site. While the category and location labels aid greatly in viewing the food, they almost double the time it takes to enter items. Doing more testing on that area would have been good. In addition our tests didn't cover all uses. A user's reaction to entering 10+ foods is very different that that when entering 3, like in our tests. We simplified the food entry scenario, leading to an inappropriate risk assessment.