COLOURFUL CHOICES Making healthy food choices when grocery shopping can sometimes be foiled by misleading labelling and nutritional information that veers towards the scientific.

Yuka helps explain labels on packaging and informs shoppers as to whether their food choices are healthy. It then guides them away from undesirable choices that they may unwittingly make.

Consumers download the app and use it to scan the bar code of products, which Yuka rates based on nutritional quality, additives and whether it’s organic or not.

Rather than spewing out more information than necessary, Yuka simply provides a colour coded score: green for healthy and red for not, while yellow and orange fall in the ‘buyer beware’ range. If a product is found to be unhealthy, Yuka will recommend a healthier alternative.

A premium version includes extra services such as a diet plan. The app also has systems for cosmetics and personal hygiene products.

GREENER PASTURES Those committed to making sustainable lifestyle choices such as dining or staying at environmentally-friendly restaurants and hotels, using sustainable transport and so on may find it a challenge to source these options while travelling in foreign lands.

French startup Tookki has created a mobile app that enables users to do so. The app lists establishments and activities on its site after vetting them for their commitment to sustainability.

Users can also recommend places and activities they stumble upon and earn points when they do so. This entitles them to discounts and other perks in e-shops of the app’s partner brands.

The app allows users to search the area they’re in for restaurants, hotels, transport and shopping options that are sustainable, furnishing users with a map on how to get there, as well as opening times and phone numbers.

Additional experiences such as ‘zero waste’ workshops, organic meals and so on are also listed.

PLANET AND PROFITS Encouraging more people to recycle continues to be the need of the hour as the world buckles under the pressure of depleted resources and production stresses.

In Egypt, Zeroprime encou­rages recycling by offering rewards as it accepts plastic bottles and cans in exchange for gifts such as phone credits, promotional codes for taxi services etc.

The CanBank smart vending machine has replicated the model that waste collectors use when sorting through waste to col­lect recyclables for sale for a small profit. This machine detects the items that have been deposited and auto­matically sorts it for col­lectors who are then able to sell it to factories.

Installed in public spaces with plans for supermar­kets as well, the machines play songs and read out funny messages, making the recycling experience as interactive and pleasant as possible.

HEALTHIER LIVING Selecting healthy and nutritious food items from among the plethora of additive laden and junk food on supermarket shelves is a hard ask. So cate­ring to specific dietary needs and personal nutritional requirements can leave consumers befuddled.

Pinto helps create personalised nutritional guidance by using consumers’ data to guide them to more suitable and healthier food options. Users can select pre-built dietary profiles such as gluten-free, diabetic, vegan and so – or simply input their personal data and dietary goals.

They then scan bar codes when shopping and Pinto will alert them about food that is unsuitable while guiding them to healthier choices. The app flashes blue for an excellent match, green for items that are a good fit, yellow if the product is all right to consume in moderation and red if it’s unsuitable.

An option to set personal calorie and nutrition targets makes it is easy for users to achieve goals such as weight loss and daily nutrition targets, paving the way for healthier lifestyles.