Open Food Facts learns how sustainable your food is

In this world we pay more and more attention to sustainability. It is possible in the supermarket to see whether a product contains a lot of sugars and fats, but how sustainable it is is another matter. The Open Food Facts app helps you, because it allows you to scan the barcode and see what’s behind the product.

The environmental impact of your food

Here you can see the ‘usual suspects’, such as fats and sugars, but also what the ‘forest footprint’ is (in terms of deforestation) and what the environmental impact is. For example, we look at the impact of the packaging, but also of the individual ingredients of a product. You can also see whether a product is vegetarian or vegan, indicating in advance what you find important. If you are not a vegetarian, then you don’t have to make that important, but if you are strict vegan, then that is ‘mandatory’ information.

For example, you can scan dates that are vegan, but then – often – come from Israel. Now this app does not look at the political impact, but at how much distance a product has had to travel. It is therefore better to opt for a Dutch apple than for those Spanish strawberries. This app teaches you that, although we think that this app itself also needs to learn a thing or two.

Open Food Facts

For example, there are still a lot of products missing in the app, or the information about products. That feels a bit strange: for example, he can say that a bottle of iced tea is a sugary soft drink, but not whether it is vegetarian. If he doesn’t know a product at all, you will be asked if you want to add it. However, the concept is very good: many people still want to know more about their diet and that is where this app can help. Environmental impact, food processing, ingredients: it’s all part of the app.

It is clearly not a Dutch app, because it sometimes contains some strange translations, such as ‘Powerful nutritional values’, but also full sentences that are not entirely easy to read. Eventually you will figure it out, but it still comes across as a bit clumsy here and there: you would almost trust the further information in the app a little less. Something that is obviously not the intention.

In short, there is still some work to be done at Open Food Facts, but the idea is very good and we would like to see a version of it that is a little firmer.

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Do you spend a lot of time thinking about the environmental impact of your food? Do you use this app for that or another? Leave it now in the comments.