April 4, 2026 • 8 mins
New studies show an alarming rate of Kiwis life off ultra-processed diets, especially considering 70 percent of packaged foods in NZ supermarkets meet this criteria.
A new app created by a Kiwi nurse is looking to help us navigate the supermarket shelves and make healthier choices.
KaiWise founder Peter Bird says the nation's food system is 'broken' and his own health issues inspired him to help Kiwi shoppers make a change.
"Being a practical chap - I'm a farming boy from way back - you just had to get on and make things happen yourself. And I just thought - what can I do?"
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News talks'b Right.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
It is believed that around seventy percent of packaged foods
in our supermarket are considered ultra processed, with ultra processed
food making up over fifty percent of Kiwi diets. Alarming statistics,
aren't they? A great app created by Kiwi Nurse is
looking to help us navigate to the supermarket shelves and
make healthier choices. I'm loving it. Peter Bird is the
(00:33):
founder of kai Wise, and he joins me, now, good morning, Peter,
Good morning, How are you really good? Thank you nice
to talk to you. Talk me through why you created
this app.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Well, I look, fundamentally, our food system is a little
bit broken. And about forteen years ago I was diagnosed
with I had some health issues and I started to
The first thing I did was I looked in the mirror,
and I said, looked at what I could do to
help myself and our course, nutrition was the first thing
(01:06):
that I started to look at. And then that from
that came the realization of just how damn confusing it is,
just even just going to the supermarket to try to
find and hunt through and get some healthy foods, and
then following that doing a little bit more research, just
just realizing the just the how confusing, purposely confusing, too
(01:32):
unfortunately our food system is. And so really it was
and being a practical chap. I'm a farmer, farming boy
from way back. You just had to get on and
make things happen yourself. And I just thought, what can
I do? And really that's how kai it was like
Kiwis came from that. It was like, what can I do?
(01:52):
How can I reach as many people as I can?
How can I help even the playing field? And that
was kind of that was the beginning of it.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
I think you probably answered this question I was going
to ask you, do we make understanding food too hard?
Speaker 3 (02:07):
I think we do it well. I'm a simple sort
of organism really, you know, I'm one of one of
the good. I'm fundamentally I'm a nurse. I'm also a nutritionist,
but I'm an educator at the bottom line, and I
think I'm quite good at taking complex information, breaking it down,
delivering it simply. And I just thought I need to
translate that into an app, translated into that into Kiwise,
(02:30):
because I've worked for the last thirty years of my
nursing career. I've worked with the average person. I've worked
with blue collar just and I know what's going on
on the ground because that's me. I'm there, you know,
I'm and so it needed to be simple, that needed
to be easy, and it needed to be truthful. It
needed to be independent and needed and that's so that's
(02:52):
what we're developing with with COI wise.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
So here's what I love about it is depending on
what maybe on your mind at the moment, or something
you're trying to work on, you can select what interests you.
Of course I just selected everything because I wanted to
know everything you can you can find. It gives you information.
You can select what interests you. You can find out about
processed food, a sugar content impact on blood, sugar protein content.
Of course, everyone's obsessed about getting their protein or fiber,
(03:17):
how much fiber content, salt content, calorie. So you give
people the opportunity to focus on something that might you
know you don't because it can be overwhelming doing it
all right, but if there is something you were trying
to improve, this gives you the opportunity to get the
real facts. The other thing I really like is you
talk about serving sizes being more realistic, because if you
read the back of a pack, it will give you
(03:37):
a percentage per maybe one hundred grams. Now, well, yeah,
or something similar, and that's not often what we're actually
putting on the plate.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
No. Look, it's one of the games at Big Food
Play is that if to hide an increase in soulf
or sugar, what they do is they change the serving size.
So what we've done is we've going, well, this is
about how much you eat, and we've made the serving
size bath. And what we've also done is you'll know
(04:06):
within kai wise as we've made it teaspoons and pinches
of salt and teaspoons of sugar, because who understands milligrams?
And I mean it's we've we've endeavored just to strip
away the confusion, just make it, make it, make it truthful.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Absolutely. How important is a locally produced app like this?
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Well, I think what, look, what we've done the the
the food literacy in New Zealand is pretty poor, and
certainly in certain in Pacifica and Maldi and im so
for me creating creating buye Wise, and it wasn't by
(04:49):
accident we called it clai Wise and Food Food Wisdom.
So having having an app for New Zealand Buy New
Zealand was really really important to me. I love my country,
I love I love our people and I I really
it's like being taken advantage of and seeing people being
(05:09):
taken advantage of. So it's vitally important. And I think
we're not we're not planning on stopping at New Zealand.
We're I'm over in Australia now on a holiday and
visiting family, but I'm also going around supermarkets and we're
we're you know, we've got the in the process of
on the edge of launching in Australia.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
So amazing. So it's pretty simple. You basically scan the
serving sizes and the and the information is to you
know what's in a product and then it gives you
all this information. Did you have to load all these
products into the app? Or is it the way it
the information you give it?
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Yeah, Look what we've got is we've got is called
a GUS one database, and so that's the database of
all the foods that we've got in our supermarket. So
when so when you look at a barcode and behind
that barcode. That that barcode is designed and owned by
gus One, which is an international non for profit and
so we've we've we have a relationship with them, contract
(06:11):
with them here in New Zealand. Actually, my my niece
manages that particular department, which was I didn't know at
the time, and so we've we've got so when you
scan a barcode, you it accesses that database and draws
all that information. So food companies have to provide the information.
(06:32):
The information that the information that clothe Wise gets is
from what's on that product. It's just translated into green,
amber and red. And we all know what green, amber
and red is.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Peter, what's your oign with this app? What do you
hope it'll achieve.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
I'm hoping look to create a to create a free,
a far more level playing field. That's all I'm trying
to do. Is there's a lot of isn't there. There's
a lot of talk about taking self responsibility and in
relation to eating well and exercising and losing weight and
(07:11):
just you know what you need to do is you
need to you need to take self responsibility. Well, the
essence of take when you're taking self responsibility what you
also need is you need the truth, don't you so
you can make accurate decisions. And so my aim for
kai wise is to be able to provide that truth,
a food truth app in the pocket so that someone
can scan before they buy. And you can. You can
(07:35):
download the app right now is the free version, and
you can go to your pantry and your cupboards and
you can just scan your products and I can I
can absolutely guarantee you'll find surprises. You sure do.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Thank you so much, Peter. And so that we were
talking about was kai Wise, And as we said, good
thing to do if you got a bit of time
on your hands this afternoon, downloaded I just use the
free version, go to the pantry, start having a scan.
You might be intrigued by what you find.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live and News Talks it be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News talks'b Right.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
It is believed that around seventy percent of packaged foods
in our supermarket are considered ultra processed, with ultra processed
food making up over fifty percent of Kiwi diets. Alarming statistics,
aren't they? A great app created by Kiwi Nurse is
looking to help us navigate to the supermarket shelves and
make healthier choices. I'm loving it. Peter Bird is the
(00:33):
founder of kai Wise, and he joins me, now, good morning, Peter,
Good morning, How are you really good? Thank you nice
to talk to you. Talk me through why you created
this app.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Well, I look, fundamentally, our food system is a little
bit broken. And about forteen years ago I was diagnosed
with I had some health issues and I started to
The first thing I did was I looked in the mirror,
and I said, looked at what I could do to
help myself and our course, nutrition was the first thing
(01:06):
that I started to look at. And then that from
that came the realization of just how damn confusing it is,
just even just going to the supermarket to try to
find and hunt through and get some healthy foods, and
then following that doing a little bit more research, just
just realizing the just the how confusing, purposely confusing, too
(01:32):
unfortunately our food system is. And so really it was
and being a practical chap. I'm a farmer, farming boy
from way back. You just had to get on and
make things happen yourself. And I just thought, what can
I do? And really that's how kai it was like
Kiwis came from that. It was like, what can I do?
(01:52):
How can I reach as many people as I can?
How can I help even the playing field? And that
was kind of that was the beginning of it.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
I think you probably answered this question I was going
to ask you, do we make understanding food too hard?
Speaker 3 (02:07):
I think we do it well. I'm a simple sort
of organism really, you know, I'm one of one of
the good. I'm fundamentally I'm a nurse. I'm also a nutritionist,
but I'm an educator at the bottom line, and I
think I'm quite good at taking complex information, breaking it down,
delivering it simply. And I just thought I need to
translate that into an app, translated into that into Kiwise,
(02:30):
because I've worked for the last thirty years of my
nursing career. I've worked with the average person. I've worked
with blue collar just and I know what's going on
on the ground because that's me. I'm there, you know,
I'm and so it needed to be simple, that needed
to be easy, and it needed to be truthful. It
needed to be independent and needed and that's so that's
(02:52):
what we're developing with with COI wise.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
So here's what I love about it is depending on
what maybe on your mind at the moment, or something
you're trying to work on, you can select what interests you.
Of course I just selected everything because I wanted to
know everything you can you can find. It gives you information.
You can select what interests you. You can find out about
processed food, a sugar content impact on blood, sugar protein content.
Of course, everyone's obsessed about getting their protein or fiber,
(03:17):
how much fiber content, salt content, calorie. So you give
people the opportunity to focus on something that might you
know you don't because it can be overwhelming doing it
all right, but if there is something you were trying
to improve, this gives you the opportunity to get the
real facts. The other thing I really like is you
talk about serving sizes being more realistic, because if you
read the back of a pack, it will give you
(03:37):
a percentage per maybe one hundred grams. Now, well, yeah,
or something similar, and that's not often what we're actually
putting on the plate.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
No. Look, it's one of the games at Big Food
Play is that if to hide an increase in soulf
or sugar, what they do is they change the serving size.
So what we've done is we've going, well, this is
about how much you eat, and we've made the serving
size bath. And what we've also done is you'll know
(04:06):
within kai wise as we've made it teaspoons and pinches
of salt and teaspoons of sugar, because who understands milligrams?
And I mean it's we've we've endeavored just to strip
away the confusion, just make it, make it, make it truthful.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Absolutely. How important is a locally produced app like this?
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Well, I think what, look, what we've done the the
the food literacy in New Zealand is pretty poor, and
certainly in certain in Pacifica and Maldi and im so
for me creating creating buye Wise, and it wasn't by
(04:49):
accident we called it clai Wise and Food Food Wisdom.
So having having an app for New Zealand Buy New
Zealand was really really important to me. I love my country,
I love I love our people and I I really
it's like being taken advantage of and seeing people being
(05:09):
taken advantage of. So it's vitally important. And I think
we're not we're not planning on stopping at New Zealand.
We're I'm over in Australia now on a holiday and
visiting family, but I'm also going around supermarkets and we're
we're you know, we've got the in the process of
on the edge of launching in Australia.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
So amazing. So it's pretty simple. You basically scan the
serving sizes and the and the information is to you
know what's in a product and then it gives you
all this information. Did you have to load all these
products into the app? Or is it the way it
the information you give it?
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Yeah, Look what we've got is we've got is called
a GUS one database, and so that's the database of
all the foods that we've got in our supermarket. So
when so when you look at a barcode and behind
that barcode. That that barcode is designed and owned by
gus One, which is an international non for profit and
so we've we've we have a relationship with them, contract
(06:11):
with them here in New Zealand. Actually, my my niece
manages that particular department, which was I didn't know at
the time, and so we've we've got so when you
scan a barcode, you it accesses that database and draws
all that information. So food companies have to provide the information.
(06:32):
The information that the information that clothe Wise gets is
from what's on that product. It's just translated into green,
amber and red. And we all know what green, amber
and red is.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Peter, what's your oign with this app? What do you
hope it'll achieve.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
I'm hoping look to create a to create a free,
a far more level playing field. That's all I'm trying
to do. Is there's a lot of isn't there. There's
a lot of talk about taking self responsibility and in
relation to eating well and exercising and losing weight and
(07:11):
just you know what you need to do is you
need to you need to take self responsibility. Well, the
essence of take when you're taking self responsibility what you
also need is you need the truth, don't you so
you can make accurate decisions. And so my aim for
kai wise is to be able to provide that truth,
a food truth app in the pocket so that someone
can scan before they buy. And you can. You can
(07:35):
download the app right now is the free version, and
you can go to your pantry and your cupboards and
you can just scan your products and I can I
can absolutely guarantee you'll find surprises. You sure do.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Thank you so much, Peter. And so that we were
talking about was kai Wise, And as we said, good
thing to do if you got a bit of time
on your hands this afternoon, downloaded I just use the
free version, go to the pantry, start having a scan.
You might be intrigued by what you find.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live and News Talks it be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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