Washington sources reported that the Food Switch app, developed by researchers from the George Institute for Global Health in Australia and Northwestern University in the US, asks users to crowd source information on new and changing foods to update its 268,000 product database in real time. Meanwhile with a tap of the screen, users can scan a packaged food's barcode, quickly see its nutritional rating and identify similar foods that are healthier.
Furthermore it provides a Health Star Rating that scores each food between 0.5 stars (unhealthy) to 5 stars (healthiest). As per report the scoring is based on a scientific algorithm that weights the impact of different nutrients on health. Moreover the app also provides a breakdown of the food's fat, saturated fat, sugars and salt in grams and gives a percentage of an adult's daily intake for each and this is shown as red, yellow and green traffic lights.
Furthermore the users also can compare multiple products in the same category,
such as regular and fat free salad dressing, to quickly determine which product
is healthier. Moreover if a user scans a bar code and the food is not in the
database, the app prompts the user to photograph the packaging, its nutrition
facts panel and ingredient list so the app's team can add it to the database. Further
Food Switch has already launched in many countries including India, China,
South Africa and Hong Kong.
