7-Eleven scans palms to check if customers are eating their veggies

It's common knowledge that a diet rich in fruits and vegetables boosts health and longevity. Unfortunately, intake often falls short of recommended daily portions. Instead of just telling people to fill up their plates with plants, 7-Eleven now shows them whether they're eating well. In numerous stores in Japan, the retailer recently introduced Vege-Check — a device that uses reflection spectroscopy to measure carotenoid levels in a person's skin.

Carotenoids include lycopene, which colors tomatoes red, and beta-carotene, which makes carrots orange, and they're decent biomarkers for estimating the amount of fruit and veg someone has eaten. How it works? At participating 7-Eleven stores, customers simply place their palm on a scanner, and within 30 seconds, they're provided with a readout. Their vegetable intake level is displayed on a scale from 1 to 12, with 7 to 8 corresponding to approximately 350 g of daily fruit and veg intake.

While the method isn't as accurate as a blood test, it's noninvasive and a close enough approximation to tell someone whether to eat more greens. Vege-Check and similar devices have been around for several years but have yet to be introduced widely in a retail setting.