Allergy sufferers will soon be able to use their iPhone to scan barcodes on Nestlé food products at the supermarket. The application will allow consumers to access detailed product information including allergens such as wheat, egg, peanuts and shellfish directly from their iPhone.

Stephen Ray, Supply Chain Director for Nestlé Asia, Oceania and Africa (AOA) said: “We looked at a number of ways we could use this information stored on our nutritional databank in an e-commerce application, and a focus on allergens seemed to be the best fit. This is the first time Nestlé Australia has ventured into a collaborative software project using the iPhone platform and has the potential to be developed further.”

The development of the e-commerce application could harness the Company’s extensive bank of nutritional information and data contained on product barcodes, which are the universal keys that provide detailed product information such as weights, volumes, packaging material and price. Mr Ray continued that the successful initial testing had paved the way for a consumer trial and he was confident of a commercial rollout to consumers later this year via iTunes.

Pressing the ‘Go Scan’ icon on the iPhone launches its internal camera and photographs the barcode of the Nestlé product. The image is sent to the data base held at Deakin University’s server to find a match. A list of the product’s allergens is sent back to the iPhone and displayed on the screen once a match is found.

via www.nestle.com