FoodEssentials Scanner

-Nutrient knowledge right at your fingertips-

Ever been somewhere and needed to know exactly what's in your food at that very moment? A new iPhone app from FoodEssentials lets you do just that - and more. Not only does this app allow you to look up almost any food out there and find out the ingredients and nutrition information (fat, calories, sugars, etc.), it also tells you allergen and additive information and, for the allergens, what actual ingredient in the food causes the allergen. You can look up each and every food by typing in the name of it into your iPhone or scanning a barcode in the grocery store or at home, and browse through the massive directory of brand name foods. All of this information can be saved and organized into a "label" that you see every time you look up the food in order to remind you why you should (or shouldn't, in most cases) be eating the said food. The app also allows you to compare foods side by side and determine which is the most healthy or least offensive, and it also allows you to save your favorite foods into an electronic shopping list, if you're so inclined.

You can view a video of the app in action here: http://blog.foodessentials.com/fe-scanner-app/
Or you can view the iTunes page for the app here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/foodessentials-scanner/id360586367?mt=8

I feel like this is another great little program that it would be helpful if we could all have and use, even if it's just once in awhile. Though not all of us are constantly watching our nutrition information, we should, and this handy little app will make it easier for us to identify what's good and what's bad for us to eat when we're on the go. The same thing goes for allergy information. I actually think this would be most useful for that, as that's something that's not always on people's minds, yet it's extremely important for certain people to be able to identify at all times. The fact that there are so many foods to look up is fantastic, and the fact that you can look them up through barcode is also a nice touch, especially for foods and items that (assumedly) have multiple entries in the app's dictionary. I also like the way you can organize what information you want to see in what order, so you can remind yourself what not to eat with ease. All in all, this is a wonderful idea for those people out there who are trying to watch their weight, their health, or those who have a lot of allergies and need to keep all of these things in check. Go check out the FoodEssentials app if you fall into one of these categories, or if you're just neurotic and need to keep track of your calorie count at all times.