VICTORIA, Australia—An iPhone application being developed by Deakin University, GS1 Australia and Nestlé that will allow consumers to scan a food’s barcode at the grocery store to instantly access detailed product information including allergens such as wheat, egg, peanuts and shellfish directly from their handheld device.
“When you read a label the product information is often so small you can barely read it, nor understand it,” said Caroline Chan, associate professor at Deakin University. “In Australia all packaged food products carry a barcode but its use is limited to inventory control and to settle purchases at the cash register.”
She said the barcoding system administered by the not-for-profit organization, GS1 Australia, had “unlimited potential” as it could be associated with other valuable product data such as serving size, nutrient information, and environmental related information.
“We wanted to really harness all this information on the bar-coding system and team it up with detailed product information provided by Nestlé to give consumers a tool that had the potential to improve their health and raise public awareness,” she said.
Initial testing of the application had been encouraging and the next step was to seek funding for a consumer trial. She is confident the application will be expanded to appeal to people on special diets or those with specific nutritional needs.
