Food labels are such a mess that the government is redesigning them, as the ingredient  lists are usually too confusing. As a result, a shopper could spend hours in a grocery store watching, calculating, and comparing, and still could not get it right. ShopWell is trying to help by allowing consumers to scan food labels and receive understandable and personalized information. Here's how it works. Register for ShopWell, and enter your age and gender. Add your goals (General health? Or are you trying to lose weight?). Then, note what you want in your diet, such as protein or iron, and what you want to avoid(added sugar, say). Add your allergies  and things you cannot accept, and start scanning. Then ShopWell will come up with a clearly personal result: green for a food that is good for you; yellow for foods you can enjoy a little; and red for foods you should avoid. The results are easily understandable and is clean because it's not mixed with ads. Instead, ShopWell makes money by selling data to supermarkets. Its database contains 350,000 products, the app has been downloaded 1.3 million times, and the company claims a scan every two seconds "in stores such as Walmart, Whole Foods and 7-Eleven," in the words of marketing manager James Allgood. One of the first items I scanned was So Delicious Coconut Milk Creamer, which I buy because I'm lactose  intolerant. It turns out it's only a little suitable for me -- because of its 1 gram per serving of added sugar. I'm not sure I'll give it up. But Ididask the app to watch for added sugar, and it's doing its job. One _ to ShopWell is that the scanner often doesn't work for items from Costco or Trader Joe's. Meanwhile, Some user reviews say that it doesn't cover enough allergies. Why do consumers hesitate long when deciding which food to purchase in a shop?
Because there are usually an extremely wide variety of food in the shop. Because food labels in the shop are in such a mess that they need redesigning. Because consumers desire to scan food labels for understandable information. Because consumers can hardly make sense of the information on the food labels.