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Finding out what a food product contains becomes easier with CarrotLines, a new iPhone application. (Lloyd Choi)
Tired of trying to decipher the small print and unpronounceable words on food labels? A new mobile phone application that was developed on a reality TV show takes finding out what’s in a given food product to a whole new level.
Called CarrotLines, the application provides users with detailed nutritional information on a product, such as how much and what kind of fats, whether the ingredients are organic, kosher, vegan, or halal, and whether it contains nuts. It can also tell a product’s country of origin.
A “profile tab” allows users to personalize the app by choosing the foods they’re most interested in, says Wahiba Chair, founder and CEO of PortaLife Solutions, the company that markets CarrotLines.
“You go in the store and point your camera at the bar code. It scans the bar code and then tells you whether this product is low in fat or contains trans-fats and things like that. So basically it tells you what you're looking for,” she says.
A Vancouverite originally from Algeria, 27-year-old Chair got her big break on Stars Of Science, a show based in Doha, Qatar, that places young innovators of Arab origin in a 10-week competition to invent and develop products.
The CarrotLines team is comprised of Justin MacDonald, food platform manager, founder and Ceo Wahiba Chair (C), and Angela Feiner, marketing and PR expert. (Ryan Smith)
Broadcast daily in prime time, the show allows viewers to follow the life of 16 contestants as they develop their product while overcoming the challenges they encounter along the way.
After Chair and her CarrotLines product got cut out at the half-way point, she was put in charge of marketing for Dozan, a team that developed an automatic tuner for Arabic string instruments.
“I was cut out at the design stage so I joined someone else's team at the business stage,” she says. “I helped him make a business plan because he didn't have much business training, and we ranked number one the next two stages.”
By getting the largest amount of votes from viewers in the last episode, Dozan won US$300,000, which was divided among the team members. Chair came away with $10,000, which she used to get CarrotLines up and running.
She says that even though she “wasn’t sure how people would react to such an innovation at the time,” the positive feedback she got from the audience and on a FaceBook fan page that was set up for the competition boosted her confidence.
“It was like market validation on TV,” she says.
Starting June 1, CarrotLines will be available for download through the Canadian iPhone App Store or at www.CarrotLines.com for $2.99. Although new information will continue to be added, it can be accessed at no additional cost.
One of the biggest challenges has been the wide variety of food products on which information needs to be gathered, Chair says. The app currently contains data on more than 10,000 Canadian food products, with more being added as the information becomes available.
In the future, she says the app will provide additional information such as whether a food contains genetically modified organisms or has been irradiated. However, she notes that the aim is not to be a food watchdog but to provide useful information to consumers.
“We're not trying to police the industry, not at all. We're trying to provide a solution that can allow all stakeholders to benefit from the information and highlight what people care about.”
