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Date: 23 February 2012
New smart phone app FoodSwitch is helping consumers navigate confusing nutritional panels, making sense of food claims and guiding users to healthier choices and therefore healthier habits.
By simply scanning the barcode of Australian packaged foods using an iPhone camera, shoppers receive immediate, easy to understand nutritional advice about the product via the app.
And good news travels fast, since being launched mid January, FoodSwitch has been downloaded more than 120,000 times, and is a top rating app on iTunes. What’s more, within a day the app reached number one in the free health-related apps, and by day two was number one across all free Australian apps.
To date, the FoodSwitch team has received more than 700 comments of thanks, suggestions for improvements and messages about how FoodSwitch has helped people and their families make positive changes for better health, such as Sandra Sesa from Oakleigh “Thank you for such a fantastic app. My kids knocked back some chips after they saw all the ‘reds’. I couldn't believe that they made the choice of not buying them. They are ages 8 and 10”.
FoodSwitch is currently available to iPhone users; an Android version is scheduled to be launched toward the end of March.
A recent comment by Deputy Editor, Ruth Armstrong of the Medical Journal of Australia noted the app would be particularly suited for consumers with specific needs, and “have lacked the knowledge to make good choices.”
To download the app go to www.bupa.com.au/foodswitch
To listen to an interview about FoodSwitch with lead investigator, Professor Bruce Neal, Senior Director of The George Institute go to www.georgeinstitute.org
