Food Navigator: Artificial intelligence could be the key to unlocking healthier food options on supermarket shelves

How much of what the food industry sells is healthy? That’s the question many stakeholders want to know, from investors to governments, consumers and even industry competitors.

But healthy vs unhealthy sales splits are rarely available. And on the odd occasion they are, they’re quickly outdated.

That’s all about to change, according to the Access to Nutrition Initiative (ATNi), which challenges industry to make healthier foods more available and affordable. The NGO is increasingly using artificial intelligence to transform how food portfolios are assessed.

The aim is that soon everyone will be able to see, in real time, exactly how much of what the food industry sells is truly healthy.

Healthy vs. unhealthy sales splits – in real time

ATNi aims to ensure that at least 50% of all supermarket products are healthy worldwide by 2030 – a significant increase from the current baseline of 34%. The NGO is already monitoring the healthiness of food and beverage giants’ portfolios to nudge these companies in the right direction.

But the NGO only publishes The Global Index every two to three years, as well as a handful of country indexes every few years in Kenya, India, Tanzania, the US and UK. What ATNi really wants is real-time nutrition monitoring globally and in many more countries, and it plans to enable this with its new AI-enabled Nutrition Transformation Hub.