Page 196 - Petelin, Ana, et al. 2019. Eds. Zdravje otrok in mladostnikov / Health of Children and Adolescents. Proceedings. Koper: University of Primorska Press
P. 196
avje otrok in mladostnikov | health of children and adolescents 194 Since colour coded information is not mandatory, not many producers
choose to label their products in such schemes. That is why we have developed
an application that helps consumers make more informed everyday choices
with colouring nutrition information in traffic light colours.
“Veš kaj ješ?” application
The mobile VKJ app‘translates’ the numerical nutrition declaration into sim-
plified, at-glance, coloured information on how much sugar, fat, saturated fat-
ty acids and salt is in food and beverage by scanning the barcode on the pack-
age. As such, it makes the healthy food choice easier.
Development
First mobile VKJ app was already developed in 2014. It was well excepted among
consumers and had more than 35.000 downloads. Nutrient values were shown
in traffic light colours, but needed to be manually transcripted by the consumer
from the package to the software. Since this process was time consuming, the
application needed an upgrade. In 2017 we have joined a project “Deklaracija=
Informacija” lead by Nutrition Institute (NUTRIS) and in collaboration with
Jožef Stefan Institute (IJS). The project was supported by the Ministry of Health
under “Dober tek” programme and resulted in an upgraded application under
the same name “Veš kaj ješ”. IJS provided the technical development of the ap-
plication and a link to the database with information over 20,000 foods that
were collected in many different previous projects at NUTRIS. Until now we
have already had over 50.000 downloads.
Communication
Since young people are highly computer literate the VKJ app is a perfect solu-
tion for them, providing simple, at-a-glance and easily understandable infor-
mation. With integrated and targeted, group-tailored activities, we have built
unified communication messages to influence nutrition decisions for healthy
habits among empowered, responsible consumers of the future.
How it is used?
Mobile VKJ app enables users to scan barcode of pre-packaged food/beverage
and get an energy value and traffic light evaluation of nutrition profile. It en-
ables direct comparison and sorting of similar products by chosen nutrients.
There are also other user-friendly functions such as favourites, last scanned,
manual calculator for nutrition value, sending new food items to database,
comparing nutrition label of foods in categories etc. We have not even forgot-
ten about colour blinded users: beside colour there are also icons: x-red/for
high, 0-amber/for moderate and ✓-green/for low, for the value of each nutrient.
choose to label their products in such schemes. That is why we have developed
an application that helps consumers make more informed everyday choices
with colouring nutrition information in traffic light colours.
“Veš kaj ješ?” application
The mobile VKJ app‘translates’ the numerical nutrition declaration into sim-
plified, at-glance, coloured information on how much sugar, fat, saturated fat-
ty acids and salt is in food and beverage by scanning the barcode on the pack-
age. As such, it makes the healthy food choice easier.
Development
First mobile VKJ app was already developed in 2014. It was well excepted among
consumers and had more than 35.000 downloads. Nutrient values were shown
in traffic light colours, but needed to be manually transcripted by the consumer
from the package to the software. Since this process was time consuming, the
application needed an upgrade. In 2017 we have joined a project “Deklaracija=
Informacija” lead by Nutrition Institute (NUTRIS) and in collaboration with
Jožef Stefan Institute (IJS). The project was supported by the Ministry of Health
under “Dober tek” programme and resulted in an upgraded application under
the same name “Veš kaj ješ”. IJS provided the technical development of the ap-
plication and a link to the database with information over 20,000 foods that
were collected in many different previous projects at NUTRIS. Until now we
have already had over 50.000 downloads.
Communication
Since young people are highly computer literate the VKJ app is a perfect solu-
tion for them, providing simple, at-a-glance and easily understandable infor-
mation. With integrated and targeted, group-tailored activities, we have built
unified communication messages to influence nutrition decisions for healthy
habits among empowered, responsible consumers of the future.
How it is used?
Mobile VKJ app enables users to scan barcode of pre-packaged food/beverage
and get an energy value and traffic light evaluation of nutrition profile. It en-
ables direct comparison and sorting of similar products by chosen nutrients.
There are also other user-friendly functions such as favourites, last scanned,
manual calculator for nutrition value, sending new food items to database,
comparing nutrition label of foods in categories etc. We have not even forgot-
ten about colour blinded users: beside colour there are also icons: x-red/for
high, 0-amber/for moderate and ✓-green/for low, for the value of each nutrient.
