Google Search brings nutrition data to more than 1,000 foods

Ever wondered how many calories are in a burrito? How about grams of fat in a donut? Or, carbs in a potato?

All of these food and nutrition stats, and more, can now be found on Google Search. The Web giant announced Thursday that it was introducing detailed nutrition information for more than 1,000 fruits, vegetables, meats, and meals in both its desktop and mobile search.

"From the basics of potatoes and carrots to more complex dishes like burritos and chow mein, you can simply ask, 'How much protein is in a banana?' or 'How many calories are in an avocado?' and get your answer right away," Google product manager Ilya Mezheritsky wrote in a blog post. "You'll hear the answer to your specific question, see relevant nutrition information under an expansion, and be able to switch to other related foods or serving sizes."

Mezheritsky mentions that users will be able to "hear" the answer -- it appears that in addition to the nutrition feature, Google is also touting its new question-and-answer interface for search. The company introduced this feature at Google I/O earlier this month, which lets users click on a microphone icon to say and hear their queries.

The data used to fill in the nutritional information comes from Google's work building out its Knowledge Graph, which aims to bring information from all around the Web to one location.

"The graph helps us connect things that are related, even in cases when those foods have a completely different sounding name from what you asked," Mezheritsky wrote. "For example, when you ask for 'summer squash carbs,' we include 'zucchini' as a relevant food in the dropdown, because it is a type of summer squash."

The nutrition information will be rolling out across the U.S. over the next couple of weeks and Google will continue to add in more features, foods, and languages over time.