Food Hacking

The Mr Seel’s iPhone App, which we first produced in 2011, was designed to let you discover how we used to grow, make and eat food across Liverpool by scanning food products from the present day. Unfortunately, we have not had the ongoing funding to keep this up to date and the app is no longer available.

The barcodes on all food packaging were linked to a Universal Product Code database that gives information on what a product is. Supermarkets use these codes to access details about a product including its price.

When you scanned a product with the Mr Seel’s App it linked to our own database of memories and historical notes that tell you about how food was grown, cooked and eaten in the past. Just as the local food movement is transforming the global food system, our app sought to transform Universal Product Codes into Local Memory Codes which uncover our local food heritage.

How did it work?



Scan the barcode on any food product within the Liverpool area and you would have received a historical fact or story about how we used to grow, make and eat food in the past. 

The quotes and stories were gathered from local people who shared memories about food and from historical archives that tell us how Liverpool used to a centre of local food production.

Where could I use it?



The App worked anywhere within 20 miles of Everton, Liverpool City centre and Sudley House in Mossley Hill.

Download was here:

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/mr-seels-garden/id592339365?mt=8