Table 1.
History of the Food Label Information Program (FLIP) Database collections and updates.
| FLIP database | Collection period | n * | Number of stores | Collected product variables/information | Collection method |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010–11 | March 2010–April 2011 | 10,487 | 4 | Name, Brand, Company, Container size, NFt, UPC, Marketing information‡ | • Food packages purchased for data collection. • Variables of interest were manually entered in Microsoft Excel. • Uploaded to FLIP cloud database following the 2013 collection. |
| 2013 | May–Sept | 15,342 | 4 | Name, Brand, Company, Container size, NFt, UPC, Marketing information‡ Ingredients List, Photos of all sides of packages | • iPhone app development for digital collection of food package images in stores. • Database software development using Cloud storage. • OCR software development to automate NFt and ingredients list data entry. • Excel report generation capabilities added. |
| 2017 | July–Sept | 19,267 | 3 | Name, Brand, Company, Container size, NFt, UPC, Marketing information‡, Ingredients List, Price (regular & sale), Photos of all sides of packages | • Upgraded technology capabilities, including ability to update databases using Excel. • Automated linking & matching products between databases using UPC or store-specific product codes • Development of algorithms for food categorization and nutrient profiling |
| 2020–21 | May 2020–Feb 2021 | 74,445 | 9† | Name, Brand, Container size, NFt, UPC, Ingredients List, Price (regular & sale), Photo of front of package (if available) | • Web scraping to collect all product information • AI-enhanced OCR technology to collect all product information. • Automated linking & matching UPCs / store-specific codes between FLIP 2020 and FLIP 2017, and between stores within FLIP 2020 |
*
Sample sizes in the FLIP 2010–11, 2013 reflect unique products, while the sample size in FLIP 2017 also includes multiple package sizes and FLIP 2020 includes multiple package sizes and duplicates across stores.
†
Data was collected from seven retailers plus two location-specific stores.
‡
Marketing information included nutrient content claims, health claims, front-of-pack labeling, and children's marketing. Tabs and options can be and have been expanded over time, depending on research needs.
FLIP, Food Label Information Program; NFt, Nutrition Facts table; OCR, optical character recognition; UPC, universal product code.