let&39s move pittsburgh has just launched its own "green light foods" app.by rebecca sodergrencomparing nutritional information on products at the grocery store can be a dizzying experience.take, for instance, breakfast cereal. richard piacentini, executive director of phipps conservatory and botanical gardens, said cereals can be confusing because when you check the nutritional information, a &ldquosugar cereal&rdquo can appear to have fewer calories or sugars than a more healthful cereal &ndash but that&rsquos because the socalled &ldquoserving size&rdquo for the sugar cereal might be ½ cup, while the serving size for the other cereal is 1 cup. people usually eat the same amount of cereal each day no matter what kind they&rsquore eating, so using different serving sizes doesn&rsquot make for a good comparison.but now, phipps has an app for that.working with carnegie mellon university students, phipps has created &ldquogreen light foods,&rdquo a free app that allows users to scan barcodes for products in the grocery store and get a &ldquogreen light&rdquo or &ldquored light&rdquo on the food item in each of four areas saturated fat, total fat, salt and sugar. for solid foods, the app compares foods based on a 100milligram measurement for beverages, the app uses 100 milliliters. users can compare the scanned item with other, similar products.&ldquothis levels the playing field&rdquo and allows for more accurate comparisons between products, mr. piacentini said.it also offers a quick and easy way for those working at new year&rsquos resolutions to make smart choices in the grocery store.about a week after the app&rsquos release on android, more than 100 people had downloaded it, and phipps had received a good bit of feedback. because the app was developed using a national product database, users&rsquo most common suggestion was that phipps allow people to compare storespecific or more regionalbrand products with nationalbrand products. so work already has begun on the next version, which will allow users to input data directly from food packaging into the app.through jan. 31, people are invited to download the app, use it and take a survey about it. three users who complete the survey will be selected at random to receive free phipps memberships for a year.&ldquothe reason we chose salt, sugar and fat is that these are the three key things that people think are related to the poor diet and health problems we see&rdquo in modern america, mr. piacentini said.he noted that it&rsquos still important to take portion size into account when consuming these products.&ldquojust because something comes up with all green lights&rdquo doesn&rsquot mean you can eat an infinite amount of it.so why is phipps conservatory behind this app&ldquowe&rsquore a botanical garden, so we&rsquore concerned with the connections between people and plants,&rdquo mr. piacentini said. &ldquoone of the ways we connect with plants is through the foods we eat.&rdquothis focus on plantbased foods, and the environmental and health impacts of food processing, led phipps to develop the michelle obamainspired &ldquolet&rsquos move pittsburgh&rdquo program in conjunction with other area businesses and experts. this app is the latest effort by let&rsquos move pittsburgh to offer area residents assistance in making wise food and fitness choices.the app is now available for both android and apple devices and can be downloaded from letsmovepittsburgh.org. it&rsquos also available through phipps.conservatory.org in a scrolling display at the top of the homepage.local foodfor the love of pittsburgh a winter local food tasting showcasing offerings from local farms, food producers, wineries, breweries, bakeries and other food businesses, presented by farm to table pittsburgh. 4 to 7 p.m. sunday, feb. 8, at pittsburgh public market, strip district. 25 10 for children ages 2 to 12. tickets showclix.com search on &ldquofor the love of pittsburgh&rdquo.charitable eventspour for a cure beer and food samples, music, auction items. 530 to 830 p.m. friday, jan. 23, at the u.s. steel tower, downtown. 50 20 for designated drivers. proceeds benefit the leukemia & lymphoma society. lls.orgpageswpapourforacure.bosnian food night halal meal of bosnian foods at 6 p.m. saturday, jan. 24, at the turkish cultural center, 1459 crane ave., banksville. suggested donation is 15 proceeds benefit islamska zajednica bosnjaka pittsburgh.freebiesribboncutting and grandopening celebration washington winery celebrates its move to a new, larger location with free wine and beer tastings and hors d&rsquooeuvres from local restaurants. 10 a.m. saturday, jan. 24, at 202 s. main st., washington, pa. amwinesupplies.com.random acts of pieness from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. saturday, jan. 24, the pie place in upper st. clair will give a free pie to every 10th paying customer over age 18. a piemaking class for children will also be held that day at 11 a.m. call 4128354410 to register.contestsouper bowl soup contest mcginnis sisters stores are accepting entries for their annual soup contest through sunday, jan. 25. email your recipe for your favorite soup to karen.novak@mcginnissisters.com, and include your phone number. ten finalists from each mcginnis sisters store will be selected. each finalist will be asked to bring a pot of hot soup to their local store at noon on sunday, feb. 1. a panel of judges will select the winners, who will receive a 50 store gift card and the &ldquosouper bowl trophy&rdquo a soup pot.rebecca sodergren pgfoodevents@hotmail.com or on twitter @pgfoodevents. 
