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Foodlyze – Own Your Food, Own Your Health

Inspiration

Healthy food should not be a privilege, yet the food industry reaps on misleading labeling and confusing ingredients, and millions of people—especially in low-income communities—are left in the dark about what they consume. We set out to bridge the gap between food transparency and accessibility so that everyone, not just the wealthy, has the choice to make an informed nutrition choice. Driven by the lack of understandable, accessible nutrition data, we created Foodlyze, an AI based web app that scans barcodes, analyzes ingredients, and shows understandable, actionable information on food healthiness.

What it does

Foodlyze allows its users to instantly analyze food products by simply scanning a barcode. The application accesses ingredient data, calculates the overall health score of a specific food from a formula, and then enchances the experience with AI. We use GPT-4o mini to transform complex ingredient data into easy-to-understand descriptions. In this way, users of any level of nutrition knowledge are able to easily make better food choices.

How we made it

We used a combination of AI, machine learning, and web technology to create a seamless experience:

Barcode Scanning – Retrieves product details from a food database.
AI Health Score Model – Uses an authenticated food health database to provide an accurate score.
GPT-4o mini Integration – Translates ingredient details into plain, human-readable nutrition summaries.
Tech Stack – We used SvelteKit, FastAPI, Tailwind CSS, TypeScript, Python, and GPT4o mini.

Challenges we faced

Data Limitations – Some products were not present in food databases, so we tried our best to utilize alternative sources.
Balancing Accuracy & Speed – Keeping real-time barcode scanning and AI-generated results was technically challenging, but we optimized API calls for performance. -Free API used - We only had access to a free API at this moment as we didn't have the budget to spend on this

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Making food transparency accessible to everyone, especially to low-income populations.
Creating an entirely functional prototype in a matter of a day that really provides value to individuals to help them live healthier lives.

What we learned

Why food justice matters – We dug deeply into how low-income households are disproportionately impacted by processed foods.
Optimizing AI for real-world use – A balance of accuracy, performance, and user experience is needed in AI-driven apps.

What's next for Foodlyze

Expanding the food database – Adding more sources to offer a greater range of foods globally.
Personalized nutrition guidance – Adjusting advice as per dietary constraints, food allergies, and budgets.
Community feedback – Allowing others to contribute product info and offer alternative healthier options.