Beat allergies with mobile barcodes

A pretty cool use of mobile barcodes is being pushed in Australia by some seriously heavyweight institutions. GS1 Australia is working with Nestlé and Deakin University to build allergy information into barcodes that can be read by mobile phones.

What’s the story?

This story starts with GS1 – it’s a global non-profit body, dedicated to making the movement of goods around the world as trackable and transparent as possible. It uses open systems that everyone can benefit from. Amongst other things, GS1 is responsible for maintaining the global UPC barcode standard. And as the maintainer of the most commonly used barcode standard in the world, GS1 is looking seriously at the mobile barcode world.

How will this system work?

It’s an iPhone app that will be able to scan any food barcode, and tell you if it contains an allergen. So if you’re allergic to fish, nuts or anything else, this scanner will be able to give a product the red or green light before you put it in your shopping basket. The product has been in development by Deakin University, but it is being handed over to GS1 Australia as things get more serious.

What we think?

This isn’t even close to being the first time that mobile phones have been used for food. Through barcodes and other mobile channels, mobiles have been seeing health and edibles applications for ages now. The reason this one is different is because it’s a GS1 product – that means it’s part of GS1′s global MobileCom program. This tries to ensure that any application of this sort can be rolled out globally as a business and consumer product. So while this is only being seen in Australia for the time being, it could easily see a global launch.

Via ITnews Australia