My Google search agent for “IDEO” highlighted a venture launched by the company called ShopWell. While the site is still in early beta, I’ve signed up to take advantage of the service that ShopWell is offering – which is to ultimately help me select food choices that are right for me.
While you can read about ShopWell in a more in-depth article here, one of the key points that I’ve taken away from this article is how ShopWell can meet the needs of both consumers and food manufacturers.
While standard nutrition labeling has helped, it is too generic to offer any real guidance to consumers – especially if the person has health conditions, is allergic to certain ingredients, or is extremely athletic. At the same time, with 99 of every 100 new food products failing, food manufacturers need a better way to figure out what consumers want.
By radically simplifying the decision-making process for consumers (essentially categorizing foods into red/yellow/green status items that meet consumer’s specific needs), and providing manufacturers with greater transparency into these choices, ShopWell is a company designed to serve both of these needs.
Check out Wade Roush’s article here to learn more about this new endeavor.