Published on
•
4 min read

Building a Recipe App with AI image parsing

Authors
  • avatar
    Name
    John Moscarillo
    Twitter

Building a Recipe App with AI: Why Markdown is Better Than JSON for Parsing Output

The rise of AI in app development has brought about a new way to interact with and generate content. One of the biggest challenges when building an AI-powered recipe app is ensuring consistent output. Many developers default to JSON for structuring AI-generated responses, but a lesser-known yet powerful alternative is Markdown.

The Problem with JSON and Image Parsing in AI

While JSON is a common choice for structured data, it presents significant challenges when working with AI-generated content. A major issue is that image parsing in ChatGPT currently does not support structured formatting, making JSON unreliable when extracting recipes from images. Additionally:

  • Strict Syntax Requirements – AI models may generate incomplete or invalid JSON, causing parsing errors.
  • Escaping Issues – Special characters and newlines can lead to malformed responses.
  • Unexpected Formatting – AI may not consistently generate properly nested JSON structures, leading to data loss or misinterpretation.

Given these limitations, Markdown provides a more reliable and flexible alternative for structuring AI-generated content.

AI-Powered Recipe Apps: Transforming the Cooking Experience

AI can revolutionize recipe apps by:

  • Generating complete recipes from minimal user input.
  • Extracting structured recipes from unstructured text (e.g., blog posts, PDFs, or handwritten notes).
  • Converting ingredients into shopping lists and suggesting meal plans.
  • Enhancing user experience with natural language processing (NLP) for search and recommendations.

Why Markdown is More Reliable

Markdown is a lightweight markup language designed for readability and ease of parsing. Here’s why it works better for AI-generated recipe outputs:

  1. Forgiving Syntax – Unlike JSON, minor errors in Markdown do not break the entire parsing process.
  2. Easy to Read and Edit – Both humans and machines can process Markdown efficiently.
  3. Consistent Structure – AI models trained with Markdown output provide more predictable formatting.
  4. Flexibility – Markdown can be easily converted into HTML, plain text, or structured formats without complex transformations.

Example: AI-Generated Recipe in JSON vs. Markdown

JSON Output (Prone to Errors)

{
  "title": "Spaghetti Carbonara",
  "ingredients": ["200g spaghetti", "100g pancetta", "2 eggs", "50g parmesan", "Salt, pepper"],
  "instructions": "1. Boil pasta. 2. Cook pancetta. 3. Mix eggs and cheese. 4. Combine all."
}

If any comma is misplaced or a quotation mark is missing, parsing fails.

Markdown Output (More Robust)

~ ~ ~ Spaghetti Carbonara

## Ingredients

- 200g spaghetti
- 100g pancetta
- 2 eggs
- 50g parmesan
- Salt, pepper

## Instructions

1. Boil pasta.
2. Cook pancetta.
3. Mix eggs and cheese.
4. Combine all.

Parsing Markdown in Your Recipe App

Markdown can be easily converted to structured data using javascript string manipulation.

const title = recipeText.split('~~~')[1].trim();
const Ingredients = recipeText.split('## Ingredients')[1].trim();
const Instructions = recipeText.split('## Instructions')[1].trim();

Conclusion

If you’re developing an AI-powered recipe app, consider Markdown over JSON for parsing AI-generated content. Markdown’s flexibility, fault tolerance, and human-readability make it a superior choice for ensuring consistent, structured output. By leveraging Markdown, you can reduce errors, and simplify content management in your app.