App Review for FACS

Family and Consumer Sciences Middle School- Food and Nutrition - 16. Compare the nutritive value and cost of restaurant meals to home-cooked meals. 

• Yuka - On Yuka, users can scan the barcodes of food products, the app will tell the user the overall rating of the product based on the ingredients. The user can see whether each ingredient in the product is healthy, unhealthy, or harmful. The app also suggests similar but more healthy / better options. The app is free but offers in-app purchases. It is available on Google and Apple devices. The intended audience is 4+. The review site listed is from Google Play store reviews, so 133k users have rated and/or commented on the app giving it an overall score of 4.7/5

• Nutrismart- Users can search restaurants and find food items at each restaurant. The app will tell the nutrition facts of the food item and show a macronutrient chart. There are other features outside of restaurant food, users can search food ingredients and scan food items to find the nutrition facts. The app is free but offers in-app purchases. The only platform this is offered on is Apple devices. The intended audience is 4+. The review site listed is from Apple's App Store, over 100 users have rated the app giving it a 4.1/5

• YAZIO- Yazio is a calorie counter and food tracker designed to help you reach a goal. You can also scan barcodes of food items, keep track of activity and water intake, and view recipes and meal plans. The app is free to download but requires a subscription to use. The app is available on Apple or the Google Play store. The intended audience is 4+. The review site listed is from the Google Play Store where 500k users have rated the app giving it a score of 4.3/5.

To meet the Family and Consumer Science standard, the best app would be Nutrismart. This app would allow students to compare nutritional facts from restaurant meals (by searching through the restaurant's food in the app) to home-cooked meals (by searching for each ingredient on the app. Unfortunately, the app is only available on Apple devices, so trying to implement the app in the classroom might become difficult if students only have an Android. In this case, students would have to pair up for an assignment using this app.