An app that flips pester power on its head and encourages children to demand healthier food has won a Tesco competition for ideas on health.

Created by developers Barcode Monsters, the app was named the winner of a 48-hour ‘hackathon’ on health run by Tesco Labs last weekend, and could be rolled out by Tesco as part of its fight against obesity.

The app seeks to ‘gamify’ the shopping experience, allowing children to scan products in store. Depending on the nutritional content of the item scanned, the monster featured in the app gets happier or sadder and changes colour.

The creators have now been invited to discuss developing the idea with Tesco experts.

Eleven teams of start-ups took part in the brainstorming event, which also turned up ideas such as earning Clubcard points for choosing healthier foods; making it easier to choose healthy recipes; and rewarding healthy shopping with donations to the community.

Another start-up, FitWin, was given a prize for the most energetic team. Its idea was an app that uses Clubcard data to offer personalised tips to customers to make their shopping healthier based on what they buy.

Meanwhile, Community Health won the prize for best design. It created an app that rewards customers for healthy shopping by allowing them to donate to health-based community projects.

“Making it easy for our customers and colleagues to lead healthier lifestyles demands we develop simple tools to support them in making healthier product choices,” said David Wood, Tesco’s managing director for health and wellness.

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