A New Food App That Helps You Decide

Giki, a new UK based app, assesses a product’s sustainability, health and fairness credentials by awarding it up to 12 “badges”.

The badges include: organic, recyclable packaging, local (UK made), low carbon footprint, responsibly sourced, no chemicals of concern, free from additives, healthier, animal welfare, no animal testing, greener cosmetics and kinder cleaning. Users scan a product’s barcode to get its ratings in each category. Where a product scores poorly, alternatives are suggested.

There are more than 250,000 products on the app, both branded goods and store brand labels from supermarkets including Waitrose, Co-op, Asda and Sainsbury’s. Pack information, government guidelines and scientific research are added to a database which algorithmically scores product against all the badge options.

And there are more tech innovations on the way:

Refill - Helps you find water bottle refilling stations near you so that you don’t have to buy plastic bottles.  

Farmdrop - Delivers ethically sourced food fresh from farm to your front door. Uses electric delivery vans, paper bags and fully compostable carriers.

Karma - Find leftover food from restaurants including Aubaine and Hummus Bros for half the regular price.

Happy Cow - Helps you find a local veggie or vegan restaurant worldwide. 

It’s amazing just how much more advanced these food focused apps are across the pod, as we in the US still struggle with how to offer electronic coupons.