A smartphone app called Foodswitch, which enables UK consumers to make healthier and smarter food and drink choices, has been launched.
Consensus Action on Salt and Health, which has launched the app, said it will help customers make more informed decisions when purchasing their weekly shop, in turn reducing their risk of ill health through poor diets.
FoodSwitch allows users to scan the barcode of over 80,000 packaged food and drinks sold across major UK supermarkets using their smartphone camera to receive immediate, easy to understand ‘traffic light’ colour-coded nutritional information along with suggested similar, healthier products. It is now easier than ever for consumers to reduce high levels of fat, salt and sugar in their families’ diet.
When the barcode of a food or drink product is scanned by a smartphone, FoodSwitch instantly searches the database and identifies healthier products by comparing the overall nutritional value of the product to existing Government criteria. The overall nutritional rating takes into account a range of different factors important to general health including fats, sugars, salt, protein and fibre.
The app colour codes each product by the content of four important nutrients - total fat, saturated fat (saturates), sugars and salt: Red – (high) try to choose products with less red circles; Amber – (amber) this choice is OK, but going for choices labelled green is better; Green – (low) the more green circles, the healthier the choice.
FoodSwitch was developed by a number of UK nutrition research experts; the Medical Research Council Human Nutrition Research, The British Heart Foundation Health Promotion Research Group, and the Nuffield Department of Population Health and Nuffield Department of Primary Care, University of Oxford, and led by The George Institute for Global Health (TGI).
Professor Susan Jebb of Oxford University and chair of the Government’s Responsibility Deal, said: “A poor diet is responsible for tens of thousands of premature deaths every year in the UK. People will be able to use this smartphone technology to swap the foods in their regular shopping basket for healthier options to help themselves and their families to cut their risk of diabetes, heart disease and some cancers.”
