Pittsburgh, Pa. — Let’s Move Pittsburgh — a program of Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens modeled after First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign to curb childhood obesity through raised awareness about better nutrition, increased physical activity and decreased screen time — has launched a new mobile application to aid consumers in making healthy food choices at the grocery store. This wellness tool, developed to help busy families stay on track, will allow parents and caregivers to quickly and effectively identify products with the best nutritional profiles while shopping for kids. Providing an easy way for users to visibly compare packaged foods and beverages, Green Light Foods uses traffic light colors, chosen because of their universal meaning, to indicate how much fat, saturated fat, sodium and sugar that certain products contain. The application communicates this information to the user by scanning barcodes, pulling data from a database, and then displaying the amounts along with traffic light symbols to indicate low, moderate and high concentrations of these additives to help individuals make fast, informed decisions about the healthfulness of certain products on grocery store shelves. It also supplies tips on finding alternatives to foods with poor nutritional profiles, as well as general nutritional information to help inform and inspire better shopping decisions.
“We are thrilled to offer Green Light Foods as a solution for parents and other caregivers with limited time to spend scrutinizing labels in the grocery store,” says Phipps Executive Director Richard V. Piacentini. “It is our hope that the new tool will not only make it easier for families to embrace healthy living, but also help to instill in children better eating habits that will serve them well for a lifetime.”
“We are thrilled to offer Green Light Foods as a solution for parents and other caregivers with limited time to spend scrutinizing labels in the grocery store,” says Phipps Executive Director Richard V. Piacentini. “It is our hope that the new tool will not only make it easier for families to embrace healthy living, but also help to instill in children better eating habits that will serve them well for a lifetime.”
Green Light Foods, now available for free through iTunes and Google Play, was developed in collaboration with Phipps, Let’s Move Pittsburgh, a student development team at Carnegie Mellon University which included Jia Chin, John Hu, Michael Probber and Mallory Wang, and Red House Communications. The product labeling system after which the application was modeled was developed in the U.K. by the Food Standards Agency based upon detailed discussions with the food industry, health organizations and other interested parties. For more information, please visit letsmovepittsburgh.org.
About Phipps: Founded in 1893, Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Pittsburgh, Pa. is a green leader among public gardens with a mission to inspire and educate all with the beauty and importance of plants; to advance sustainability and promote human and environmental well-being through action and research; and to celebrate its historic glasshouse. Learn more: phipps.conservatory.org.
