[HelloFresh] Recipe-scraper does not return the correct amount of ingredients for Hellofresh

[bonsdawende]

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Pre-filing checks

• I have searched for open issues that report the same problem
• I have checked that the bug affects the latest version of the library

The URL of the recipe(s) that are not being scraped correctly

• https://www.hellofresh.com/recipes/lasagne-saumon-epinards-ricotta-6231d16b3073ea4e521968d4

The version of Python you're using

Python 3.9.5

The operating system of your environment

Ubuntu 21.04

The results you expect to see

For 2 servings we would have:

• 1 pièce Gousse d'ail instead of 1/2 Gousse d'ail
• 1/2 pièce Oignon jaune instead of 1/4 pièce Oignon jaune
• 1 pièce Poireau instead of 1/2 pièce Poireau
• ....

The results (including any Python error messages) that you are seeing

½ pièce Gousse d'ail", '¼ pièce Oignon jaune', '½ pièce Poireau'

Can you write Python and would you like to help fix the scraper yourself? We'd be glad for your assistance! We can provide you with guidance and code review in return. If so, tick any of the relevant boxes below:

• I'd prefer if the recipe-scrapers team try to fix this

[gloriousDan]

Looking at the source of the recipe you linked reveals the issue:

The amounts per serving visible on the html site are different from the amounts per serving in the schema.org json which is embedded on the site.
recipe-scrapers gets its data from the embedded json.

This is the embedded json and that's why its wrong:

  "recipeIngredient": [
    "½ pièce Gousse d'ail",
    "¼ pièce Oignon jaune",
    "½ pièce Poireau",
    "50 g Ricotta",
    "100 g Épinards",
    "1 selon le goût Noix de muscade",
    "20 g Fromage italien râpé",
    "100 g Feuilles de lasagne fraîches",
    "113 g Miettes de saumon fumé à chaud",
    "10 g Noisettes grillées",
    "30 g Tomates semi-séchées",
    "½ cs Huile d'olive",
    "½ cc Vinaigre de vin blanc",
    "15 g Beurre",
    "15 g Farine",
    "275 ml Lait",
    "½ cc Moutarde",
    "½ cs Vinaigre balsamique noir",
    "selon le goût Poivre et sel"
  ],
  "recipeYield": 2,

Is it wrong for all recipes from hellofresh or only for some?
If it's only this recipe, maybe you can contact hellofresh to correct this. Otherwise we could try scraping the correct recipeYield from the HTML

[bonsdawende]

@gloriousDan, Yes i tested some recipes all have the same issue unfortunately. it's not only for the recipe. Yes i think it s better to try scraping the correct recipeYield from the HTML.

[hhursev]

We gotta fix this indeed.. By browsing the site I'm with the impression that this problem will be happening only if the recipe has "serving amount 1" as an option.
Can you send me couple more links to other recipes with the problem described (ideally break my hypothesis if you think it's wrong)

[bonsdawende]

@hhursev, here are some links where I find an inconsistency regarding the data of the ingredients (but I think deep down that this is about all Hellofresh recipe links) :
https://www.hellofresh.com/recipes/wraps-aux-galettes-quinoa-tomates-6255db99b7800a4ac46cb29e
https://www.hellofresh.com/recipes/risotto-a-la-courgette-et-mozzarella-de-bufflonne-5ec4f877af63e629095067a7
https://www.hellofresh.com/recipes/veloute-de-poivron-et-patate-douce-5ebcffdd470e7a2f041a9030
https://www.hellofresh.com/recipes/gratin-depinards-a-la-creme-5ebcfe75fb20c466cd267b3d
https://www.hellofresh.com/recipes/chakchouka-au-fromage-de-chevre-5eb41aa7d5418a482a67b864
https://www.hellofresh.com/recipes/roti-de-boeuf-en-croute-carottes-glacees-au-thym-6231d0f59470d758f0666ff6
https://www.hellofresh.com/recipes/cabillaud-en-croute-d-amandes-6231d07c327e7724d34819a5
https://www.hellofresh.com/recipes/poulet-asperges-bechamel-6231d01d02cda65789318947
https://www.hellofresh.com/recipes/chakchouka-a-la-mexicaine-et-chips-de-tortilla-maison-5ee9d76d32b98508f13b8565

When you go directly to the links from a browser, you are offered the ingredients for two servings by default.
Except that when using recipe-scrapers, your super tool returns the ingredients for one serving but displays that it's for two servings.
@gloriousDan seemed to say that it may be because you are using schema.org json to do this fetching

[gloriousDan]

That's interesting. It seems like all french hellofresh links (as far as I've checked) have the "serving amount 1" option while recipes in most other languages (e.g.: https://www.hellofresh.com/recipes/uk-balsamic-streak-with-red-cabb-5841a8ad9df18165854cdd72 as an example for an english recipe) only have the "serving amount 2" or larger settings.
French recipes can be accessed from: https://www.hellofresh.fr/recipes
English recipes at: https://www.hellofresh.com/recipes

Maybe we can assume that the ingredient amounts listed in the schema correspond to the lowest selectable serving amount.
This way it hopefully won't break the recipes for other languages than french.

[bonsdawende]

@gloriousDan : I made the same observation that for the recipes in French the minimum portion was one and in the other languages from two.

We can make this assumption but I think it can confuse users, especially if it is not specified anywhere saying that for French the 2 serving displayed by recipe-scraper should not be taken into account, but that the value minimum is one.

[gloriousDan]

We can make this assumption but I think it can confuse users, especially if it is not specified anywhere saying that for French the 2 serving displayed by recipe-scraper should not be taken into account, but that the value minimum is one.

What I meant is, that based on this assumption we could implement something in the hellofresh scraper, which gets the correct serving count from the html instead of fron the schema.
The user won't notice anything about that.

[bonsdawende]

@gloriousDan : I agree with you. 👍

[gloriousDan]

I just raised the issue with the hellofresh.fr customer support

Transcript of customer support chat

Agent: How may I assist you ? Good Afternoon though. :)

Me: I noticed an error on seemingly all french recipes on https://www.hellofresh.fr/recipes The embedded #schema.org json lists the wrong serving amount.

As an example on https://www.hellofresh.com/recipes/lasagne-saumon-epinards-ricotta-6231d16b3073ea4e521968d4 The json looks like this:

"recipeIngredient": [ "½ pièce Gousse d'ail", "¼ pièce Oignon jaune", "½ pièce Poireau", "50 g Ricotta", "100 g Épinards", "1 selon le goût Noix de muscade", "20 g Fromage italien râpé", "100 g Feuilles de lasagne fraîches", "113 g Miettes de saumon fumé à chaud", "10 g Noisettes grillées", "30 g Tomates semi-séchées", "½ cs Huile d'olive", "½ cc Vinaigre de vin blanc", "15 g Beurre", "15 g Farine", "275 ml Lait", "½ cc Moutarde", "½ cs Vinaigre balsamique noir", "selon le goût Poivre et sel" ], "recipeYield": 2,

Here the recipeYield should be 1 instead of 2. Can you raise this issue with the dev team?

Agent: Thanks you for this information that i'll do my Best to transfer to the team.

The question is if and when they will fix it. When implementing the fix we should take care that it doesn't break again if the issue gets fixed.

[hhursev]

I say we wait around 4 weeks for hellofresh to fix it on their end. If after 4 weeks the problem persists we'll do the ad-hoc solution in our code

[bonsdawende]

ok @hhursev ! thank you so much for your reactivity as well as that of @gloriousDan.
we'll wait the back of hellofresh team

[gloriousDan]

2 months have passed now and I just had a quick look at https://www.hellofresh.com/recipes/wraps-aux-galettes-quinoa-tomates-6255db99b7800a4ac46cb29e where the error still persists.
I could have a look at implementing a fix soon but if you, @hhursev already have some ideas, feel free to implement a fix.

[hhursev]

The best that comes to my mind is simply detecting if there's serving size "1" on the recipe page, and prepending 2 * on all of the ingredients in the list if that's the case. Does that sound good to you @gloriousDan

[gloriousDan]

From what I've seen so far I think this should work. I'm not sure if it's true for all recipes from hellofresh though since I didn't look at too many