INCREDIBLE
The hand-held calorie (and carb) counter that tells you everything about what you’re eating
EXPERTS have developed a handheld scanner that zaps food and drink to reveal its exact calorie, fat and carbohydrate content.
The gadget uses a molecular sensor to scan the food – and the data is passed on to a mobile phone app that displays the information.
The scanner, smaller than a pack of cards, could be particularly useful for diners in restaurants, where food labelling may not be available. And it could also be a discreet tool to use at dinner parties for people watching their waistlines, according to the developers.
When it was demonstrated for the first time at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, the Diet-Sensor gave a nutritional breakdown of foods such as yogurt, cheese and bread.
The gadget will also be programmed to recognise cooked or raw foods, including fruit and vegetables, meat, fish, poultry and even salad dressings when it is made commercially available this year.
‘The more it is used, the more information can be uploaded [to an online digital data library] and the
It could even detect food poisoning bugs
more it will know,’ said the French company co-founder Remy Bonnasse, who designed the device after his daughter was diagnosed with diabetes. ‘For her, knowing the carbohydrate content of food is essential as the amount affects how much medication she needs,’ he said. ‘We hope it will have uses far beyond calorie-counting.’
The device is a wide-band, nearinfrared spectrometer, which works by using a beam of light that bounces between the object and a sensor, relaying molecular information.
Every material bounces light in a slightly different way, which the scanner then interprets.
One function may be to determine whether food poisoning is a risk, due to high levels of bacteria in a piece of chicken, for instance.
At present the DietSensor cannot determine the volume of food, so its weight has to be manually added in order for exact nutritional values to be calculated.
Nutritionist Zoe Harcombe welcomed the development, saying: ‘Eventually, we will be able to zap foods and know instantly their vitamin and mineral content. Food labelling can be confusing and some manufacturers try to hide this information as much as they can. This puts it out in the open.’
The scanner will cost about €220, with a monthly subscription fee – about €20 – to use it with the app.