What do you think will happen in rural America once the iPhone is available on multiple carriers? Yes, that’s right. The percentage of farmers with iPhones will increase. Let’s hope this happens soon since AT&T is not the rural carrier of choice. There are still a lot of farmers with iPhones of course and I know many who want one.
One of the reasons they want one is because of their functionality that includes apps. There’s an app for almost everything you can think of. A new one I just got info on is the FoodEssentials Scanner. These folks have a number of apps available. I thought this one looked pretty interesting.
For the first time, consumers can easily access additive, allergen, ingredient and nutrient properties of any food product in-store by scanning food label barcodes with an innovative iPhone application from FoodEssentials.
Consumers can use the FoodEssentials Scanner to customize their food label view to focus on particular ingredients, food intolerances, or dietary needs and then compare products side-by-side to help them to choose the best products for their family’s needs.
While food labeling is under increased scrutiny – including Michelle Obama’s push to improve labeling and the FDA’s recent Health and Diet Survey showing a 10% increase in consumers who read food labels – reading and comparing labels remains a confusing exercise for most consumers, not to mention allergy or food intolerance sufferers.
The aim of the FoodEssentials Scanner is to leverage technology to simplify and personalize the food choice process. ¨Food labels contain a lot of information and everyone has their own specific needs,¨ said Anton Xavier, CEO of FoodEssentials who co-founded the Chicago, Illinois based company in 2008. ¨We’re focused on delivering a personalized label experience for anyone with an allergy, food intolerance or specific need¨.
The FoodEssentials Food Label Database is at the core of the application. ¨Presently the database contains 160,000 commercially available products and over 30,000 ingredients¨ said Dheeraj Patri, co-founder and COO. ¨In addition, we’re dedicated to collecting product data for scans that return no results, so that the more it is used the better it’ll get¨.