Preliminary for our blog readers here our brand spanking new first German TV spot:

At barcoo we aim to make independent product information available to consumers – no matter where. We specialize in combining and refining information from multiple sources and bringing it to the mobile screen in a matter of seconds – so that you are able to make informed consumer decisions right in the store. But since we expect most of you to spend time at home or in the office as well, we would like to bring the same kind of service to a bigger device that might be more adapted to these settings.

Therefore we have brought barcoo to the iPad! We took the existing iPhone version and redeveloped it from the ground up so that it adapts to the different usability and screen requirements. This results in a very different user interface even though both versions share the same core and are delivered in one universal package that can be downloaded in the iTunes AppStore. Most users will not hold an iPad with one hand but instead hold it on the lap or on a table – so one notable example is that navigation elements would rather be difficult to reach on the bottom of the screen, therefore being placed on the upper left corner for easy access. Also, you might not want to run around with it to scan in the store and search for information regarding a specific product, but rather use it to browse and discover products.

barcoo for iPad

However, for those who want it, barcoo supports scanning on iPads of second generation that have a camera. For everyone else, we made browsing and discovery very easy. Right after the start we show you the most popular product categories or what is being scanned in the area. To protect users’ privacy we strip the exact location and the user data from this map, but it is still fun to see in what city areas people are scanning what.

We also made our product guides easier to reach. They provide short but precise insights into important consumer topics – like what to keep in mind when choosing a wine to buy.

The new version of barcoo is already available in the iTunes-AppStore as a free download and also brings additional improvements for iPhone users. We look forward to your feedback.

Everybody’s always told to “eat more fruits and vegetables”. But few people stop to ask which fruits and vegetables – and from where (and when)?

Fresh fruit and vegetables from local trees and fields can contain vitamins because they grow and ripen in a natural way. If fruits and vegetables come from countries far away, they get harvested when they are only half-ripe, then treated with chemicals, and then kept cool during the transportation process. That not only has detrimental effects on the food, but on the environment, too, since all of that produces a ton of CO2.

And so we ask: when do fruits and vegetables from our European trees and fields actually grow? As of now, barcoo can give you answers with its Mini-Guide for Seasonal Fruits and Vegetables. When you scan barcodes of packed produce, you can check whether it’s listed in the current season’s calendar. Or if you need a side dish that goes with fish, meat or noodles, scan one of those, and a number of suggestions appear according to which fruit and vegetables are in season (designed by the Verbraucherzentrale Hessen, and for now only available in Germany). Aside from that, barcoo also provides direct links to recipes for fruits and vegetables of your choice.

With barcoo’s new seasonal calendar, it’s super easy to eat healthy and at the same do your part in protecting the environment!

Incorporating your feedback that we received in the course of last year, WeGreen created a simplified version of the sustainability footprint. All of the evaluations are now combined into one single footprint. To be able to do this, we analysed all of our sources once again and divided them into three categories: “hard”, “medium” and “soft”. A source that is considered as “hard” has a threefold impact on the sustainability footprint, compared to a one fold impact of a “soft” source. Here is an example of the new design:

Moreover, you can now show the corporations, that you care about sustainability. The number of people showing their interest will be presented by us in a transparent way. On top of that, you can also vote on the sustainability performance of each company. To be able to do so, just go to www.wegreen.de and create an account.

Most of the time you can neither taste or smell it – but it’s there, hidden in many foods where we’d all least expect it: alcohol.

In Germany companies only have to designate food as containing alcohol if there is more than 1.2 percent of it in the product. Any amount less than that isn’t required to be listed on the packaging. For loosely sold products like freshly baked goods, it’s not necessary to tell consumers that there is alcohol inside. So it’s worth asking when you’re at the bakery. Often manufacturers prefer to use other names for alcohol like “ethanol” or “wine vinegar” on lists of ingredients. And although such small quantities of alcohol aren’t harmful to our bodies, it’s not good, for instance, for children to get used to the taste of alcohol at such a young age. That’s why it’s even more questionable when products designed for children – like cookies or after-school snacks – contain alcohol. A study by Austria’s Agency for Health and Food Safety found that only two of 19 the candies tested did not contain alcohol.

Since the mere taste of alcohol could trigger a relapse for alcohol-dependent people who have gone “dry”, these foods could even be questionable for them. When you use barcoo, it will automatically give you a warning if the product you’ve scanned contains “hidden” alcohol.

The Dioxin Scandal has shocked Germany. Chickens on German farms were eating poisoned feed. This past January when the scandal broke out, barcoo immediately built in a function to detect whether eggs had been poisoned by dioxin. So far so good.

That was a sensible and necessary protective action, but since we want to provide 100% transparency, we’ve teamed up with KAT (Association for Controlled Alternative Animal Husbandry Methods) and built in unbelievably detailed background information: not only can you find out specific information about the origin of the egg, the stocking density, the nests, the feed and the animal’s health, you can even see photos of the chickens that laid the eggs you’ve just looked up using barcoo! This is how it looks:

Photos of laying house and chicken stall

According to one statement, KAT is “the most important supervisory authority in hen keeping and believes in quality and traceability in egg production.” Personally, I’m excited for the next time I go to the supermarket and about that much more transparency. We also invite other producers for whom traceability isn’t a foreign concept to contact us.

Some products have huge packaging but not much substance. We integrated the results of the analyses of the Verbraucherzentrale Hamburg in barcoo (in Germany). Check out the German post.

X-ray vision for rice