Hyderabad, 15th February 2024,
NutriAIDE, an innovative and comprehensive MobileApp designed to
empower the users for a healthy and sustainable nutrition has been launched
today by Dr. Hemalatha R, Director, ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition and
Prof. Markus Keck, Chair of Urban Climate Resilience at Augsburg University,
Germany, in the presence of the entire team of scientists and professors working
on transformation of urban food environments.
After almost two years of development and testing, the beta-version of the
NutriAIDE app has been launched today. NutriAIDE® is not just another calorie-
counting app. It is rather a tool that helps users to reflect on their own eating
habits and enables them to transform their personal behaviour and food
environment. It also involves an AI based photo recognition tool that can identify
the likely foods one is consuming by just clicking a picture of the food for intake
assessment. In addition, the app enables to keep track of micro and
macronutrient content and also dynamically calculates the carbon footprint of
food choices of an individual. The app is developed as part of a collaborative
project by Institutes of global repute from India and Germany.
The app is an outcome of an ongoing collaborative research project titled
“NutriAIDE- Building smart food environments for improved nutrition”.
Developed in an Indo-German collaboration with leading institutes including the
ICMR- National Institute of Nutrition (India), University of Augsburg, the
German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbrücke, and the Wuppertal
Institute for Climate, Environment, Energy, and Chandigarh based start-up
Calvry Wellness Solutions Pvt Ltd, NutriAIDE aims to investigate and address
crucial aspects of food practices and nutrition-related decision-making. The
research team comprises Human Geographers, Health Communicationists,
Neuropsychologists, Sustainability Scientists, Nutritionists and Public Health
Researchers. It is completely developed in India with a technology partner – a
start-up based out of Chandigarh.
In the initial phase the app has been piloted on a sample of 720 in
Hyderabad city. With this, the entire NutriAIDE project is entering its second
phase, in which the positive effects of the NutriAIDE app on users’ food choices
and nutrition will be assessed. This brings the project a big step closer to its goal
of providing an effective app to promote healthy and sustainable nutrition
among the Indian population.
“NutriAIDE app serves as a powerful tool for consumers to measure and
transform their personal food practices.. By facilitating a deeper understanding of the
impact of dietary choices, not only on individual health but also on the environment. It
seeks to provide an engaging experience with an opportunity to ‘Mind’ what they eat,
‘Move’ to ensure adequate physical activity and ‘Map’ their food environments and rate
them. I am sure NutriAIDE will promote informed decisions and help users to embrace
positive changes for their well-being and that of the environment.” said Dr. Hemalatha
R, Director, ICMR-NIN and co-ordinator of the project on the Indian side after
she unveiled the app.
The team lead from Germany, Prof. Markus Keck, Human Geographer
and Chair of Urban Climate Resilience at the Augsburg Center for Climate
Resilience said “This project is an opportunity to do truly transformative science that
will make a lasting contribution to improving food choices and nutrition in India. It is a
pleasure to see this project growing with all the valuable contributions from my dear
partners! By leveraging cutting-edge technology and scientific research, the team aims to
improve the way individuals approach nutrition by following a holistic approach.”
ICMR-NIN principal investigator Dr. SubbaRao M Gavaravarapu
elaborates: “At the ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition, we firmly believe that
nutrition and health communication can bring about sustainable behaviour change only
if individual, interpersonal, community and policy level changes are achieved. The app
intends to empower and inform the users not only about the nutritional aspects of their
foods but also the factors that shape their food environments” explains Dr.
Gavaravarapu and is hopeful that “when people start to understand what is on their
plate, how nutritious it is and how sustainable it is they are likely to explore healthier
options both for themselves and the planet and thus it would herald a change in the food
environments.”
Sustainability scientist and principal investigator of the Wuppertal
Institute, Lena Hennes, explains that “the way we eat substantially influences our
individual health status, our quality of life and our well-being. The food environment is
a crucial influence on our personal diet and therefore requires greater attention…”
“NurtiAIDE is an amazing and innovative platform to take care of Individuals to
the whole community. The larger objective is to build the sustainable future for
generations. Our vision is to create awareness not only for health, but to the society by
offering a simple tool to understand our responsibilities towards ourselves as well as the
community.” says Vineet Singh, CEO of Calvry.
The launch of the NutriAIDE app marks an important step toward
understanding food choices and attempting to transform the food and nutritional
landscape in India. With the collective knowledge and expertise of renowned
institutes, NutriAIDE is poised to foster sustainable food practices and drive
positive change.