Say you’ve got a hot date coming up and you’re deciding whether to dig into that bag of Doritos you just bought. You’re hungry, and the promise of powdered nacho cheese is tempting, but what if they don’t sit right in your stomach? More specifically, what if they make you fart?
Enter Fart Code, a new free iOS app that aims to warn you when the food you’re about to consume might wreak a little gaseous havoc. Scan the barcode of the product in question, and if Fart Code detects any flatulence-inducing ingredients, it will let you know with a little fart of its own, rating the food on a scale from “stinky” to “toxic.”
Practical? Maybe. The team who developed Fart Code helps it will help kids learn about the food they eat. “Our dream is that kids have fun and laugh and discover the ingredients in the foods they eat. We thought it would be fun for kids while at the grocery store and they could see that certain foods have more ingredients while others have very few,” said Chris Allick, who developed Fart Code along with Pablo Rochat and Hanna Wittmark while working at the ad agency Goodby, Silverstein and Partners. “This might lead to a conversation with parents about nutrition, but we didn’t want to beat anyone over the head with this message.”
After scanning a barcode, the app uses an API that pulls a list of ingredients, then checks for anything deemed fartworthy. Allick says the team consulted nutritionists and doctors and did its own research to determine what makes you gassy.
“It’s difficult to talk to your kids about what they eat and how it impacts their bodies and minds and maybe this app will help start that conversation,” he added.
Get Fart Code here.
