Nutrition has a huge impact on our bodies, including the brain and our emotions, particularly when it comes to highly processed foods.

After spending a lot of time scouring grocery stores for hyper-specific foods and ingredients to maintain an additive-, gum- and gluten-free diet, I wanted help that would both save time and support my shopping choices. That's when I learned about WiseCode, a free AI-driven food transparency platform designed to support the nutrition and grocery shopping process while educating you along the way.

WiseCode can scan over 700,000 foods using either a product's barcode or a photo. It checks 15 attributes to give you information across five levels to help you understand what's inside the food you're consuming. 

It was built on a mission of "food transparency for all." The company's UPF Code instantly identifies a food's level of processing, powered by WiseCode's FoodTechAI tool and its proprietary WiseData Food Database. 

Read also: I Tested an AI Food Scanning App for 6 Weeks. This Is What I Learned About Ultra-Processed Foods

How does WiseCode use AI?

CEO Peter Castleman founded WiseCode in 2024, and launched WiseScore -- a food rating designed to combine ingredient and nutritional quality into a single score. The rating ranges from 1 to 100 and is labeled Poor, OK, Fair, Good or Excellent to make results easier for users to understand.

"The WiseScore begins with a simple, human idea: Give me one clear answer I can trust, no different than a FICO credit score," Castleman says. "Our AI lets us be deeply scientific without ever being overwhelming." 

WiseCode collects food-related data from its own database, which pulls in nutrition facts, ingredient lists, additives, preservatives and allergens, along with processing information and lab-tested attributes. An AI algorithm then processes this data to standardize and categorize it, cross-checking the information against millions of products.

WiseCode doesn't disclose where it draws its specific raw data from, but it builds its database using manufacturer-provided product information and barcode-linked retailer data, supplemented by public nutrition and food-science reference datasets. 

It applies its proprietary AI analysis to classify ingredients and generate insights that don't appear on the label. As with anything that uses AI, there is always room for error. Your discernment should still be the final decision maker. 

From there, WiseCode evaluates ingredient quality with a nutrient analysis that distills labels into signals, such as "high protein density" or "ultra processed." Like most AI models, machine learning's pattern recognition allows WiseCode to continuously learn from products, picking up on processed foods, unusual ingredient combinations, like natural and synthetic blends of ingredients -- for example, beet juice and Red 40 -- and nutritional imbalances that may be hard to spot if you're reading a label yourself. 

Between AI used for specific recipe creation and AI algorithms helping fight food waste, WiseCode's mission to use AI for food transparency and nutritional support is a nice tool to add to your food-focused toolkit. And, ultimately, it supports agency when making decisions for yourself.

Dr. Richard Black, chief scientific officer, shares the data process WiseCode uses to ensure accurate and reliable collection.

"We read ingredient lists the way a scientist would, but at the scale of hundreds of thousands of foods," Black says. "Our AI has to recognize that there are more than one hundred ways to say 'whole milk' on a label, and map all of those back to one consistent ingredient."

WiseCode uses what Black defines as a Bayesian statistical algorithm to estimate how each ingredient contributes to the overall nutrition of a product when the label itself doesn't disclose specific amounts. 

"On top of that, we cross-check information from multiple sources, including USDA FoodData Central, retailers and our own lab partners, and look for agreement across those sources," he says. When they all agree, WiseCode has higher confidence in the numbers. 

How to use WiseCode for food transparency 

1. Install the WiseCode app available on iOS and Android. 

2. Complete the onboarding questions that appear, including what your goals are for using the app, personalization questions relating to your specific diet and health and safety questions that aren't intrusive, but are important to understand your needs (like if you're pregnant or breastfeeding). 

3. Click the Scan button at the bottom of the screen, which allows you to scan the barcode of any packaged food product, all from your smartphone's camera. If the item doesn't come up within WiseCode's database, it'll ask you to take three photos: front and back, its ingredients and the nutrition label. 

4. This will retrieve data from its database and display information around ingredient quality and nutrient levels, additives, processing levels, allergen levels and a few other categories to help you understand the food. 

5. You can then review your results to see what you want to avoid and whether a consumable product is considered healthy for you, based on your current dietary needs and goals. This can vary depending on your reason for using the app. 

6. There's also a company-specific score called the WiseScore that'll provide a quick rating that summarizes ingredient and nutrient quality. 

7. The information is ultimately there to guide your purchasing and eating decisions and compare similar products during your shopping experience. 

For more information on WiseCode's mission and how WiseCode configures its scores (in comparison to competitors, like food-scanning app Yuka), take a look at the company's Insights blog. 

Should you use WiseCode?

I appreciate WiseCode's thorough and customizable process to both gain knowledge and understand the depth of data that is connected to the platform. I particularly appreciated WiseCode's simplified, actionable outputs (Codes, as it's coined) that make it easy to signal and comprehend what you're reading.

While AI-driven, I'd consider the platform to be human-centered, meant to support and empower you. Still, apps like these may not be appropriate for everyone. Individuals with a history of disordered eating may find numeric ratings or scores triggering. 

Additionally, those who are pregnant, breastfeeding or managing specific dietary conditions or nutritional needs should prioritize guidance from a qualified health care professional rather than an app. 

Be sure to consult your doctor before making any significant changes to your diet. 

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