System to store and access information used to score, group and present nutritional values of food products

• US 8,626,796 B2
• Filed: 08/31/2007
• Issued: 01/07/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/19/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Guiding Stars Licensing Company
• Original Assignee: Guiding Stars Licensing Company
• Inventors: McBride, James L., Pike, Thomas A.
• Primary Examiner(s): LIN, SHEW FEN
• Application Number:
  US11/848,663
• Publication Number:
  US 20080091705A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,321 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1, 705/14, 705/15, 705/26, 705/26.7, 705/27.2, 707/10, 707/100, 707/101, 707/102, 707/796, 707/756, 707/763, 707/805
• US Class Current: 707/796
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/10 Services
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/0092 Nutrition
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/60 relating to nutrition control, e.g. diets

Abstract

A database, system and related method for storing, retrieving, manipulating and presenting nutritional information about food items includes functions and data tables arranged to enable nutritional value scoring and rating. The database, system and method are arranged to enable users to input nutritional information deemed pertinent to assessing the nutritional value of food items. The tables of the database include entities representing food item designations, and arrangements of nutritional information. The nutritional information may be acquired from external sources or generated internally, including for prepared foods. The system is arranged to enable users to generate customized reports based on all product and/or company information of interest or any selectable portions of such information.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium encoded with a data structure operable in a computer system with one or more computer-implemented functions, the data structure comprising:

one or more food product information tables including entities for;

identifying one or more food products, each by a unique identifier, listing ingredients of each food product, and listing nutritional information of each food product;

a nutritional element mapping table including an element name field for selecting a nutritional element associated with a food product to be rated based on information of the one or more food product information tables, a nutrient keywords field for inputting one or more nutritional element keywords, an element rules point field for inputting one or more nutritional element point values associated with the selected nutritional element and an element rules range field for inputting one or more ranges of nutritional element input values associated with the selected nutritional element;

a rating mapping table for designating a rating algorithm type for one or more of the one or more food products, wherein the rating mapping table is configured to permit selection of a particular rating algorithm type based on food type selection, wherein a value or values of either or both of the element rules point field and the element rules range field of the nutritional element mapping table may be modified based on the rating algorithm type designated; and

a point mapping table for generating a nutritional rating for each of the one or more food products determined using the particular rating algorithm designated as a function of the food type selection for each of the one or more food products, wherein each of the rating algorithm types is configured to calculate a total point value based on the element rules point field and the element rules range field used for the food type selection and generating the nutritional rating based on the total point value calculated.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the data structure further includes a product label table, wherein the product label table includes entities for food product super category and category.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the data structure further includes a recipe table.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the data structure further includes a nutrition master table.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the entities of the one or more food product information tables include either or both of local unique products information and remote unique products information.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the data structure further includes an exceptions table.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein one or more of the entities of the one or more food product information tables are designated as Primary Key entities and a remainder of the entities are designated as Foreign Key entities, wherein the Primary Key entities have one and only one value throughout all of the one or more food product information tables and wherein the Foreign Key entities link entities, tables or entities and tables together.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the data structure is configured to enable a user to selectably display nutritional information and rating information for one or more of the one or more food products based on nutritional rating.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the data structure is configured to enable a user to selectably display nutritional information and rating information for one or more of the one or more food products based on company name.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein ingredient and nutritional information for each product comes from one or both of an external source and an internal source.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the data structure is configured to group the one or more food items based on product state selected from the group consisting of items new to system, items pending for rating, items rated, items flagged do not rate and items ready for rating.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the data structure is configured to enable the user to modify food product ingredient or nutritional information and recalculate the nutritional rating.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the data structure is configured to enable the user to combine nutritional information obtained for a plurality of components of a prepared food product into a single combined nutritional information set suitable for calculating the nutritional rating of the prepared food product.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the data structure is configured to enable the user to set up a dummy food product type, calculate nutritional rating for the dummy food product, modify nutritional information for the dummy food product, and recalculate the nutritional rating.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the data structure is configured to enable a user to select one or more portions of information and report such selected portions in a format of interest.

16. A memory for storing data for access by an application program being executed on a computer processing system, comprising:

a data structure stored in the memory, the data structure including information resident in a database used by the application program, the database including;

one or more food product information tables including entities for;

identifying one or more food products, each by a unique identifier, listing ingredients of each food product, and listing nutritional information of each food product;

a nutritional element mapping table including an element name field for selecting a nutritional element associated with a food product to be rated based on information of the one or more food product information tables, a nutrient keywords field for inputting one or more nutritional element keywords, an element rules point field for inputting one, or more nutritional element point values associated with the selected nutritional element and an element rules range field for inputting one or more ranges of nutritional element input values associated with the selected nutritional element;

a rating mapping table for designating a rating algorithm type for one or more of the one or more food products, wherein the rating mapping table is configured to permit selection of a particular rating algorithm type based on food type selection, wherein a value or values of either or both of the element rules point field and the element rules range field of the nutritional element mapping table may be modified based on the rating algorithm type designated; and

a point mapping table for generating a nutritional rating for each of the one or more food products determined using the particular rating algorithm designated as a function of the food type selection for each of the one or more food products, wherein each of the rating algorithm types is configured to calculate a total point value based on the element rules point field and the element rules range field used for the food type selection and generating the nutritional rating based on the total point value calculated.

17. The memory of claim 16 further comprising a product label table, wherein the product label table includes entities for food product super category and category.

18. The memory of claim 16 further comprising a recipe table.

19. The memory of claim 16 further comprising a nutrition master table.

20. The memory of claim 16 further comprising an elements point table.

21. The memory of claim 20 further comprising a sub elements table.

22. The memory of claim 16 further comprising an exceptions table.

23. The memory of claim 16 wherein one or more entities of the one or more food product information tables are designated as Primary Key entities and a remainder of the entities are designated as Foreign Key entities, wherein the Primary Key entities have one and only one value throughout all of the one or more food product information tables and wherein the Foreign Key entities link entities, tables or entities and tables together.

24. A non-transitory computer-readable medium with computer executable instructions that direct a computing system to operate a database, the database comprising:

one or more food product information tables including entities for;

identifying one or more food products, each by a unique identifier, listing ingredients of the one or more food products, and listing nutritional information of each food product;

a nutritional value mapping function including an element name field for selecting a nutritional element associated with a food product to be rated based on information of the one or more food product information tables, a nutrient keywords field for inputting one or more nutritional element keywords, an element rules point field for inputting one or more nutritional element point values associated with the selected nutritional element and an element rules range field for inputting one or more ranges of nutritional element input values associated with the selected nutritional element,

wherein the computer-readable medium further includes a rating function executable by the computing system for designating a rating algorithm type for each food product, wherein the rating function is configured to;

a) permit selection of a particular rating algorithm type based on food type selection, wherein a value or values of either or both of the element rules point field and the element rules range field may be modified based on the rating algorithm type designated;

b) generate a nutritional rating for each of the one or more food products determined using the particular rating algorithm designated as a function of the food type selection for each of the one or more food products, wherein each of the rating algorithm types is configured to calculate a total point value based on the element rules point field and the element rules range field used for the food type selection and generating the nutritional rating based on the total point value calculated; and

to enable a user to selectably display nutritional information and nutritional rating information for one or more of the one or more food products based on company name.

25. The non-transitory medium of claim 24 with computer-executable instructions to enable the user to group the one or more food items based on product state selected from the group consisting of items new to system, items pending for rating, items rated, items flagged do not rate and items ready for rating.

26. The non-transitory medium of claim 24 with computer-executable instructions to enable the user to modify food product ingredient or nutritional information and recalculate the star rating.

27. The non-transitory medium of claim 24 with computer-executable instructions to enable the user to set up a dummy food product type, calculate a star rating for the dummy food product, modify nutritional information for the dummy food product, and recalculate the star rating.

28. A method implemented, at least in part, by a computing system configured to carry out executable instructions using computer-implemented functions, the method comprising the steps of:

a. maintaining one or more food product information tables;

b. identifying in the one or more tables one or more food products, each by a unique identifier;

c. listing ingredients of the one or more food products;

d. listing nutritional information of the one or more food products;

e. identifying nutritional value element mapping based on food product nutritional information, nutritional elements, nutritional element point values associated with the nutritional elements and one or more ranges of nutritional element input values associated with the nutritional elements;

f. designating a rating algorithm type for each food product type using a nutritional rating function, wherein the nutritional rating function is configured to permit selection of a particular rating algorithm type based on food type selection; and

g. generating a nutritional rating for each of the one or more food products determined using the particular rating algorithm designated as a function of the food type selection for each of the one or more food products, wherein each of the rating algorithm types is configured to calculate a total point value based on the element point values and the one or more ranges used for the food type selection and generating the nutritional rating based on the total point value calculated.

29. The method of claim 28 further comprising the step of generating one or more reports displaying nutritional information for one or more of the one or more food products based on selectable nutritional information.

30. The method of claim 28 further comprising the step of generating one or more reports displaying nutritional information and rating information for one or more of the one or more food products based on selectable nutritional rating.

31. The method of claim 28 further comprising the step of generating one or more reports displaying nutritional information and rating information for one or more of the one or more food products based on company name.

32. The method of claim 28 further comprising the step of grouping the one or more food items based on product state selected from the group consisting of items new to system, items pending for rating, items rated, items flagged do not rate and items ready for rating.

33. The method of claim 28 further comprising the steps of:

a. modifying food product ingredient or nutritional information; and

b. recalculating nutritional rating.

34. The method of claim 28 further comprising the steps of

a. setting up a dummy food product in the one or more food product information tables;

b. calculating a nutritional rating for the dummy food product;

c. modifying the nutritional information for the dummy food product; and

d. recalculating the nutritional rating for the dummy food product.