The new software, NutriFilter, has been developed by Peapod allows customers to enter their specific requirements, from gluten-free, peanut-free or low fat to kosher, organic or high in vitamin A.
This comes only a month after the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) called on food companies and consumer electronic firms to work together to tackle health and obesity problems.
As well as making healthy choices easier to make for the consumer, such moves assist companies with marketing their better-for-you and additive-free products.
New labeling guidelines are making the nutritional values of products even more transparent to the consumer, but this new technology goes one step further to make it easy for consumers to choose only those products that meet their specific requirements.
Demand drives up niche market
Many niche markets bending to such specific needs of individual consumers have been experiencing substantial growth over the past few years as public awareness on nutrition and health increases.
For example, the market for allergen-free products has grown by over 300 percent since 2000, according to Mintel. The world organic market has been growing by 20 percent a year since the early 1990s, as concern has grown about food quality and safety.
And companies have been reformulating their products in order to, for example, reduce salt levels, fat content and calorie count in a bid to make their products healthier.
Numbers of overweight children and adults have catapulted in recent years. At least 20m children under the age of five worldwide were overweight in 2005, according to World Health Organization statistics. In the same year, approximately 1.6bn adults (aged 15 and over) were overweight and around 400m were obese.
However, previous research has shown that taste and pleasure still comes before meeting individual nutritional requirements, meaning labeling and actions such as online filters having a limited effect on food choices.
According to a Datamonitor report released earlier this year called "Obesity, Dieting, Exercise and the Future of Food and Drink - Understanding consumer attitudes and behaviors", pleasure is the overriding factor in choosing food.
Despite active attempts to eat healthily, and the wealth of dietary products and healthy alternatives available in the market, respondents to the group's survey associated healthy food with negative aspects in terms of taste and texture, and therefore opted most often for indulgent products.
Technology helping nutrition
NutriFilter customers are presented a blank nutrition panel and are able to select as few or as many nutritional criteria as are important to them. They can specify components such as maximum calories and grams of fat and be provided with products meeting the requirements.
NutriFilter also provides the USDA guidelines for each nutritional component providing more information than that cereal box ever would.
Another innovative step was the introduction of a camera-phone by Canadian company MyFoodPhone. This enabled individuals to take pictures of their food and receive feedback on their choices from nutrition coaches and advisors.
