App of the month: Fooducate
Posted by: Christine Bulson
Fooducate – “eat a bit better,” will help those who want to eat healthier. After taking a picture of a bar code of a product, the app displays the food’s value for health – rated from A to D. It also analyzes the nutritional information and notes if there is lots of sugar, trans fats, preservatives, additives, food color and if it has “confusing serving sizes.” There are now over 200,000 products in the database and the user is encouraged to take a picture of foods and bar codes not in the system and the site will try to add them. There also is an option for browsing by broad topic – fruits, bakery, dairy, etc. As an example, Smucker’s Sweet Orange Marmalade is given a C-, has 50 calories and three teaspoons of sugar per serving. Trade Joe’s Organic Raspberry Fruit Spread is a better alternative. Publicity for Fooducate says it “was created by dietitians and concerned parents and is not affiliated with food manufacturers.”
