FoodSwitch
A program that helps shoppers choose better foods, industry make healthier products, and government set effective policies
THE PROBLEM
Unfavourable dietary patterns, heavily influenced by the consumption of unhealthy packaged and restaurant foods, are now a leading cause of premature death and disability in most countries around the world.
THE INNOVATION
FoodSwitch helps consumers make healthier choices, industry make healthier products and governments make healthier food environments. FoodSwitch is a data and technology platform that captures, catalogues and profiles the changing quality of a nation’s packaged and restaurant food supply. FoodSwitch outputs support customers across the value chain – empowering consumers to make healthier choices, encouraging industry to make healthier products and helping governments enact and enforce policies that will deliver healthier food environments. FoodSwitch seeks support to scale the piloted program to 50 countries over the next 5 years.
STAGE OF INNOVATION: Scale
THE VISION
The goal of FoodSwitch is to improve the nutritional health of entire populations using a synergistic mix of outputs that empower individuals on the demand side, and improve the food environment on the supply side. We seek to scale to 50 countries, with a population of more than 5 billion people, over the next 5 years. Through tools like the FoodSwitch smartphone application and the FoodSwitch website which enable consumers to identify healthier food purchase options. The FoodSwitch smartphone application, in particular, by providing suggestions for healthier alternative products at the point of sale is a really practical tool that can help people make food purchases tailored to the specific health needs of themselves and their families. Customer demand for the FoodSwitch smartphone application in Australia, where it has been downloaded by one in twenty adults, is a highly tangible indicator of consumer interest in the product.