iblog

Now that a public health threat has marked obesity out as a “potential crisis on the scale of climate change”, it is no surprise that so many of us are worried. It is, therefore, interesting to see the various “funkier” measures which have been introduced to try and tackle it. For example, one such new invention is the “intelligent shopping trolley” which will alert future shoppers as soon as anything unhealthy is dropped into it.

Experts believe that such a trolley will not only make people more aware of what they are buying but will motivate those with a lack of willpower. The trolley works by scanning the bar codes of anything that is dropped into it and triggering red warning lights when it detects something that contains high levels of fat, sugar or salt. The new concept for the trolley will be unveiled tomorrow by the Institute for Grocery Distribution which is currently considering the future of British retail. It is believed that it could actually be a reality in the near future as successful trials have already begun in the States.

Not only does the trolley alert the shopper to unhealthy foods but it has actually designed to be cleverer than that. Using a scan of the shopper’s loyalty card, the trolley can detect what kind of person the shopper is - whether they have diabetes or not for instance, and what kinds of foods they need to watch out for. It also uses a record of previous purchases to help guide the shopper to the best deals and even gives directions around the store.

Sion Roberts, director of consumer industries and retail at the technology company, EDS, believes this is something that really could change shopping remarkably in future. He says:

“Everyone wants more and more information and different information, not everyone wants to know everything about a product. But many shoppers already think that lists of ingredients on packaging are too complicated to read and understand. It will be easier to read larger print on a screen. There will also be red-light alerts if you ask the trolley to give your shopping a health check. It may not stop you putting a box of cream cakes in the trolley but you will be made to think about the decision.”

This entry was posted on Monday, October 15th, 2007 at 2:57 pm and is filed under Technology, Lifestyle, Science, Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.