Your Mealime food preferences.

Diet type, restrictions and dislikes are different.

A diet type describes the broad meals you want. A restriction records something you need to exclude. A dislike records what you would rather avoid. Advanced Filters narrow recipes by measurable criteria. Keep these categories separate so an essential restriction does not become an optional preference when you switch.

These distinctions follow Mealime’s restriction guide, dislike guide and Getting Started Guide. Their menu instructions date from 2019–2020; labels in the installed app may differ.

Choose the setting that matches your cooking.

1. Open Settings → Eating preferences (called Your eating preferences in the restriction guide).
2. For a diet, tap the current menu type and select the replacement.
3. For restrictions, use Allergies and Restrictions → Add Restriction.
4. For dislikes, use Ingredients You Dislike → Add Dislike, then select the ingredients.
5. Create your next meal plan to apply the changes; do not assume an existing plan has been rewritten.

The January 2020 diet guide lists Classic, Flexitarian, Low Carb, Pescetarian, Vegetarian, Paleo, Keto and Vegan. Its Vegetarian description allows eggs and dairy; Pescetarian includes seafood. The restriction and dislike instructions were updated on 29 July 2019.

The restriction guide lists shellfish, fish, gluten, dairy, tree nuts, peanuts, soy, eggs, sesame and mustard. A later 3 December 2020 guide advertises 12 allergy options without naming them all. Use the options actually visible in your app; these sources do not establish a complete current inventory.

Custom filters use values and comparison rules.

The December 2020 guide documents Settings → Advanced Filters, with greater-than or less-than conditions. Its listed fields are total calories, carbohydrate/protein/fat percentages of calories, sodium per serving, cooking time and grocery price. Copy the field, direction, value and unit together: “less than 30 minutes” is a useful record; “quick” loses the rule. This is an organisational example, not a nutritional target.

Older articles call advanced or calorie filtering Pro features. The current official notice makes Pro recipes and features available to everyone and says subscribers will not be charged further fees. Do not use the old paid-feature wording as today’s pricing guide.

Make a preference record you can read anywhere.

Copy this structure into a note before switching. The example describes a household preference record; it is not a recommended diet or an app screen.

For a mixed household, distinguish shared dinners from individual lunches. Do not assume a single account provides a separate preference profile for each eater; see family sharing. If a setting is missing in the next app, mark it as missing rather than silently substituting a vaguely similar filter.

A filter does not check the product in your basket.

Mealime’s allergen-warning guide, updated 29 July 2019, describes a warning at the top of the grocery list and an icon beside relevant ingredients. The icon means some versions of that ingredient may contain a selected allergen. Open the extra ingredient details for the warning’s explanation. This is a prompt to inspect the product, not confirmation that every brand is suitable.

For example, a recipe may call for a generic sauce while your shop offers several brands. Check the actual packet and any substitute the retailer provides. The FDA’s consumer guidance advises reading the full ingredient information each time you buy: formulations can change, and not all allergen-containing products use a separate “Contains” statement. In the US, “may contain” warnings are voluntary; their absence does not establish absence of cross-contact.

Keep your existing allergy-management guidance with the settings record. If you cannot establish whether a product contains an ingredient you need to avoid, the FDA advises checking with its manufacturer or distributor before buying. An app filter cannot resolve that product-specific uncertainty.

Check settings with a fresh plan.

After changing Mealime preferences, build a new plan as the documentation directs. Open the ingredient lists, including garnishes and optional items. If a recipe does not fit, remove it from the plan and check which control was meant to exclude it. Do not treat an old favourite or an imported recipe as newly assessed simply because you changed a setting.

Mealime closes on 21 October 2026. Its free Meals Hub successor continues the catalogue, planning and grocery lists through Albertsons Companies apps and websites, even without a nearby store. The official notice says dietary preferences can be managed in the Meals Hub profile after signing in, and some settings must be established directly there. Enter your written record deliberately; a complete automatic preference transfer is not promised.

Bringing preferences into MealPot.

Mealime settings are not imported by the free website backup tool. Its TXT or JSON download preserves a separate recipe copy, not an allergy profile, household member or account configuration.

MealPot’s Pro recipe import is also separate: Recipes → + → Import Recipe → review → save to My Recipes. Review the ingredients against your written requirements before using the dish. Importing recipe text does not certify it for a dietary need. Use the controls available in the current app and compare any missing requirement before choosing it; our alternatives guide covers other planning workflows.

Frequently asked questions