A supermarket is a hard place to read anything. The light is flat and bright, the print is small, the packaging is shiny, and you are standing up holding a basket while somebody waits to get past you.
It is also where a lot of small decisions pile up. Which of these has less sugar. Is this the one without nuts. Is the big box actually better value. Does this say gluten free, or does it say made in a facility that also handles gluten, which is not the same claim at all.
The four questions worth asking
Does this contain something I need to avoid
Hold the packet up and ask directly. Does this contain dairy. Any nuts in this. Is there pork in this. You get a yes or no plus the relevant line, rather than scanning a paragraph of eight point type looking for one word while your basket gets heavier.
For a serious allergy, read it yourself too. The point is to turn one rushed check into two, not to hand the decision over.
Which of these two is better for me
Hold up both and ask which has less salt, less sugar or more fibre. Comparing two nutrition panels by eye means holding two packets and looking back and forth, and the panels are never laid out the same way twice. Asking takes a few seconds and removes the arithmetic.
Which is actually cheaper
Unit pricing is the most useful number on a shelf label and reliably the smallest. Ask which of these is cheaper per hundred grams and let it do the sums. Supermarkets are not especially motivated to make this obvious, and the answer is frequently the opposite of what the big number suggests.
What is this
An unfamiliar vegetable, a cut of meat you do not recognise, an imported product with no English on the front. Point and ask what it is and what people do with it. This is also the fastest way to shop in a country whose language you do not read, which our travel guide goes into properly.
Making it work in a busy aisle
- Angle away from the ceiling lights. Glare on shiny packaging is the number one cause of a failed read.
- Ask a narrow question. Sugar per hundred grams beats read the nutrition panel by a mile.
- Step out of the flow. Half a metre to the side of the aisle and nobody is waiting on you.
- Use it for the deciding factor only. You already know what you want, you just need one number.
At the till and after
Receipts have the worst print in retail. Ask for the total, ask whether a discount came off, or have the last few lines read back. Doing that at the counter while it can still be fixed is a great deal better than finding out at home.
Later, at the cupboard, the same tool answers the other half of the shop: which tin is which, and what the date on this one says.
Why hands free matters more here than anywhere
Shopping is where holding a phone is least practical. One hand has a basket or a trolley, the other has the thing you are trying to read, and there is no third hand for the phone.
That is the case for wearing the camera rather than carrying it. You hold the packet up as you naturally would, ask your question, hear the answer, and put it in the trolley or back on the shelf. The tool disappears into the task, which is roughly the highest compliment you can pay a tool.
Common questions
Can AI check food labels for allergens?
Yes. Hold the packet up and ask whether it contains a specific allergen and it will read the ingredient list and answer. For a serious allergy, read the label yourself as a second check.
Can it compare prices per unit?
Yes. Show it two shelf labels and ask which is cheaper per hundred grams or per litre and it will do the arithmetic, which is often the opposite of what the headline price suggests.
Does it work with foreign language packaging?
Yes. It reads the label and answers in your language, which makes shopping in a country whose script you do not read considerably easier.