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Foresight, the government panel on future technology, warns that our changing lifestyles are affecting attitudes towards food and that this has an adverse impact  on public health. Foresight concludes there is a lack of easy-access to essential information on food issues. Foresight also identifies serious gaps in the span and scale of this information www.foresight.gov.uk 

The strength of the Foodcounts proposed system is in:- 

ٱ originating a radical change in the depth of this information by food-knowledge 

ٱ introducing new methods of enquiry and presentation

ٱ developing a full range of system-delivery choices.

And our business will be modelled around 4 distinct markets:-  

ٱ the top segment of the food retail market 

ٱ white-goods manufacturers

ٱ the health and fitness consumer market 

ٱ consumers with disabilities. 

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  Overview I What I How I Why I Who I When I Where I Summary

Foodcounts is a multi-level food information and ordering service incorporating state of the art voice-interface. It is a complete Food Management System. To explain this, we have formulated 5 original descriptive terms:- 

ٱ A Food-Item is any food or drink product that is sold through a food retail outlet and scanned at point of sale. Each food-item is identified by a barcode printed on the package (or in a manual directory for unpackaged foods). Food-items of different sizes, or in multi-pack, will have unique ID's. 

ٱ Food-Item-Knowledge is the combination of data-sets that provide additional information on each individual food-item, such as: *manufacturer *seller *packaging *cooking *freezing *storing *nutrition *ingredients  *micro-ingredients *risk-ingredients *functional-ingredients. These data-sets combine information published by the food-item manufacturer and official government sources. 

ٱ Data-Manipulation is the separation, interrogation and computation of this food-item-knowledge through multiple databases. It also includes information and message interchange.

ٱ Food-Item-Taxonomy is the overall product classification system and an integral part of food-item-knowledge. The prime classification is by alpha sequence from which most large retailers have adopted a 5-tier hierarchical class of: *department, *aisle, *section, *shelf, *brand. These are in-store orientated classifications. There are a series of other potential typologies based on the data sets that make up the food-item-knowledge. These main classes are by: *ingredient(s), *portion-size, *calorie-level, *fat-level, *preparation-time, *cooking-option.

ٱ Inter-Operability enables food-item-knowledge to be accessed by the full range of interface devices  *conventional-phone,*conventional-mobile,*WAP-mobile,*3G-mobile,*PC-keyboard,*PC-voice,*PC-text-reader,  *PDA's,*interactive-digital-TV,*portable-and-embedded-barcode-readers. This is also referred to as a consumer-centric approach.

The definitions of these 5 terms now provide a useful shorthand.

To recap on the original question, then, what is Foodcounts? 

Answer:  Foodcounts is a unique Food Management System which will compile and classify the  broadest span of food-item-knowledge; which will develop software that offers consumers the highest level of data-manipulation, both in terms of knowledge analysis and interaction with food-item suppliers; and which, through total inter-operability, will encompass the widest possible markets 

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Foodcounts will operate by introducing a new concept in database construction. It will have the capacity and capability to incorporate all Food-Items sold within the UK. There will be 3 databases:-

FoodID™ (identity) contains the data that identifies a given Food-Item. Initially this will be : barcode, phonetic code (for voice interface) and Food-Item-Taxonomy.

FoodACT™ (action data) contains the Food-Item-Knowledge collated from individual profiles. This content interacts with the FoodID™ database. It is this feature that provides the high levels of Data-Manipulation. 

FoodXTN™ (extension) is a secure database in which consumer, retailer and manufacturer profiles can be safely stored. Access is through our proprietary CoreID™ technology. This gives us the necessary security to communicate  and integrate with 3rd party databases.

Full scale Inter-Operability is achieved by a consumer-centric approach with particular emphasis on VoiceXML and user-interface technologies. The databases operations are shown in separate a diagram. 

Email us for more information on technical resources.

      We address 4 major problems:-

• lack of  easy to understand, accessible Food-Item-Knowledge

• inertia of most consumers concerning food management 

• complexity of  on-line food ordering

• absence of protocols concerning data access and interchange

      We achieve a number of key benefits:-                   

• emergence of a national database for all UK Food-Items

• vastly improved delivery system for Food-Item-Knowledge

• profiles of individual consumer needs satisfied by Data-Manipulation 

• wider disability access through Inter-Operability

• new coding of Food-Item-Knowledge connects to intelligent kitchens 

• database interaction with retailers allows more consumer choice 

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