A free healthy food app designed to help people living in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities make healthier food and beverage choices at the local store is now available for download.

The GOOD TUCKER app was launched at the Michael Long Leadership & Learning Centre in Darwin and attended by newly-sworn in Northern Territory Administrator Vicki O’Halloran AM, local members Tony Sievers and Kate Worden, and Logie award-winning Territory actor Rob Collins as well as students from Galiwin’ku.

“The app is a free and easy way to make healthier food choices. It’s not just for consumers in remote communities; it can help all consumers make healthier choices,” Associate Professor Julie Brimblecombe from Menzies School of Health Research said.

The GOOD TUCKER app was developed by Menzies School of Health Research with the University of South Australia (UniSA) and Uncle Jimmy Thumbs Up! built upon work promoting healthy diets to Indigenous children for more than a decade.

The app is a first for remote communities and anyone trying to find the healthiest tucker. The Thumbs rating is derived from a combination of the products’ Health Star Rating and Australian Bureau of Statistics’ discretionary food classification. 

It works by scanning a products barcode and shows at a glance how healthy or unhealthy a product is with a simple thumbs up, sideways or down message.

The app is available for download from the Apple or Google Play Store. Visit http://thumbsup.org.au/good-tucker/ for more information.