YottaMark Inc. today announced it has been granted a patent on methods for personalizing food nutrition scores. The Company's ShopWell app, downloaded more than a million times in 2013, helps shoppers make healthy choices about the food they buy simply by scanning a UPC barcode from a product label. Unlike shelf-label nutrition scoring systems, which can only provide an average rating, the ShopWell solution calculates scores based on the user's individual dietary goals, such as heart health, as well as dietary preferences, such as an allergy or gluten avoidance.
"There has been a shift in understanding about diet in the last 30 years. People want to be more proactive about their health but nutrition panels can be complicated and are created for the statistically average person" said Charlie Piper, CEO of YottaMark. "One option is to seek nutrition advice from a registered dietician. Our goal is to make it easy for shoppers to access personalized nutrition scoring and healthier product suggestions at the grocery store or in the kitchen using their smartphone."
The latest patent, U.S. Patent No. 8,647,121, covers a method for calculating a score using multiple food nutritional values and user's preferences. Additional awarded claims incorporate the inclusion of health coefficients to improve score fidelity, and the scanning of a product's UPC barcode. ShopWell's algorithm was developed by registered dieticians and nutritional researchers to tailor food scores to individual health issues. The invention covered by this patent is incorporated in the ShopWell app and website, and has already been used by shoppers to score products over 4 million times.
"This important patent recognizes the fundamental innovation in the ShopWell app. The app interprets the ingredients and nutrients of hundreds of thousands of products and matches them against multiple personal dietary goals and preferences to come up with a simple, science-based score … all in a couple of seconds", said Elliott Grant, YottaMark's Founder & CTO.
With the '121 patent, YottaMark continues to demonstrate its commitment to innovation in the food industry, with 22 U.S. patents now granted for methods and systems improve data acquisition and analytics for improving the food system.
