Abstract: The present invention relates to a programmable tag that is encoded with information associated with ingestible substances, a system for producing such a tag, and a reader for capturing and decoding the tag. Predetermined profiles and predetermined coding schemes are used to encode such information to form the tag and to decode and extract such information in accordance with the present invention.

Abstract: An improved system for accessing food data and tracking a user's food intake includes a nutrition information system 600 and a mobile PDA or smartphone-based tag reading system 900. The two systems 600 and 900 are configured to communication. The mobile tag reading system 900 includes a tag capture device 902 for reading the nutritional tag, and a decoder 904 for decoding the header or visual effects included in the nutritional tag to identify the predetermined profile. The decoder 904 is also configured to decode the nutritional tag to generate the subset of the dietary product descriptions and associated nutritional values based upon the predetermined profile. A tracking log 908 is included for storing the associated nutritional values or the modified associated nutritional values based upon input from the user.