One Page Summary

Map Your Meal is an innovative mobile phone application, through which users can scan the bar code of a food product and find out how green and how fair their specific product is. Products are scored based on a comprehensive set of indicators, such as (a) their water footprint; (b) whether or not they contain GMOs; (c) processing involved in the production of the product; (d) transportation of the product and transportation of its ingredients; (e) packaging and waste; (f) the use of palm oil within the product; and (g) sustainability of fishing methods (where applicable) to assess the score for Greenness; and (a) human rights, including workers' rights and the likelihood of child labour involved in the production; (b) animal rights; and (c) the transparency of the production company to assess the score for Fairness. The full assessment methodology can be viewed here.

Furthermore, in the case of a product not being found within the database (currently containing around 3000 products in its initial stage), users have the opportunity to assess their products themselves, following a user-friendly and simple procedure through the app, and thus contributing to an enriched database. This crowd-sourcing function encourages the user to find information, such as specific labels, countries of origin and production, ingredients etc. on the product and will then match them with the appropriate indicators and scoring automatically.

Being able to reflect on the Greenness and Fairness of a food product encourages the user and consumer to view their own consumption patterns in a different perspective. In order to achieve conscious consumption, we need to be aware of what we consume, and how our current consumption impacts the planet and its people. Map Your Meal will enable consumers to find out more about their products, it will encourage them to look for indicators of Greenness and Fairness and this process will help make more conscious and sustainable choices in terms of food consumption.

The app has been developed by a team of technical developers and researchers in the framework an EU-funded project entitled 'Map Your Meal', led by Future Worlds Center in Cyprus, in partnership with Südwind (AT), C.E.G.A. (BG), Fair Trade Hellas (GR) and C.D.E.C. (UK). It is currently available for iOS and android, in German, English, Greek, Bulgarian and Turkish language.