Today we’d like to introduce you to Peter Castleman.
Hi Peter, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
WISEcode was born out of pure frustration that our foods are hurting us, not helping us. We are each given a gift, our beautiful and remarkable bodies and minds which, are designed to be healthy, regenerate, fight disease and live long. Our bodies simply need fuel (food) which is good. But that is not the world we live in.
For over 50 years, Big Food has drastically modified the ingredients in our foods making them addictive and full of empty and bad calories. The deterioration of ingredients in our foods has resulted in many health issues: obesity, chronic disease, inflammation, gut health, and many more. Whether intentionally or just bad policy, the US food industry, following FDA directives, has left consumers in the dark about what is truly in their foods. There are about 2 million food terms on the ingredient lists, which mask bad ingredients. Combined with the fact that the Nutrition Facts Panel (NFP) provides only 15 attributes of each food, we have less than 1% of the information we need about what is truly in our foods. We question all the “experts” who give us unlimited advice on what to eat without data, truly knowing what is in our foods.
From the beginning, our North Star was simple: transparency in foods to empower personalized nutrition. To take power back from Big Food, Big Government, and their partners Big Pharma and give it to us, individuals who want to love their foods and the good it can bring to our lives.
The big issue we needed to solve is “how to best empower consumers”. The world did not need another “expert giving advice”. What about providing knowledge of what’s in our foods and letting each individual decide and vote.
Introducing The Food VOTE.
Our Ah-Ha moment for us was realizing that the most powerful force in human history is the collective power of the people. Big Food and Big Government are not going to protect us so we have to protect ourselves. If WISEcode could have each individual’s voice be heard, which creates a very powerful collective voice, then we could rock the food industry for good.
How the FOOD VOTE works: Scan, Ah-Ha, Vote.
Simply scan the bar code
Ah-Ha, is instant information about the quality of ingredients in our foods using the WISEcode IQ Score ™ (ingredient quality score)
VOTE, to ‘keep or kill’ that food
The individual vote becomes the basis of “best/worse” list in many categories: overall, by each retailer, by food category, by CPG companies, by region or location, by many other aspects that provide knowledge to the consumer. The daily vote is published for full transparency because “sunlight is the best disinfectant.” What would Big Food (and big retailers) think if their products were rated the most hated by consumers?
The FOOD VOTE also becomes a tool for personalized nutrition which helps individuals and families choose what is best. When viewing a food, people will know their community views about this food and share alternatives and suggestions. We are also creating a personal IQ Score so you can compare your diet with friends and communities and like a credit rating, what you can do to increase the quality of your diet.
We have focused on additives and dangerous ingredients that have become a part of our “designer foods” today. If people had the knowledge to just eliminate bad ingredients, this would solve most of the bad food issues. We have built the world’s most comprehensive food database, WISEdataTM, to identify major ingredient issues such as ultra-processed levels, seed oil, clean labels (no artificial ingredients), hidden ingredients that harm, and a list of 13 codes that identify problem ingredients in our foods. Today we are the leader of transparency in food ingredients but most importantly we are putting the power back in your hands.
WISEcode is busting the food industry wide open. With the world’s most powerful food database, we’re giving consumers insights and we’re arming them with the truth to take back control. The days of being fooled by Big Food are over. Transparency isn’t a favor; it’s a revolution based on our right to know. What we eat affects most aspects of our lives and people deserve to be in control. That is our simple mission at WISEcode.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
We have gotten knocked on our butts so many times over the past decade we have stopped counting. Innovation never comes easy. But we naïvely believed that big food, big government, the elites, and everyone that controlled knowledge about what’s in our food would be supportive of WISEcode’s mission. How wrong were we! What we did not appreciate is that we were disrupting the status quo.
Big Food in partnership with Big Government has a very good business model. They feed us addictive food and provide little information about what is in the foods, which contributes to our health issues and then we go off to Big Pharma to take a pill to fix that health issue. Then the cycle begins again. Worse, they blame it on us for “lack of will power” and “calorie in/calories out” theories. Big Food and Big Pharma profits are very strong and they have absolutely no incentive to change the status quo. Big Government is the ultimate enabler.
Thus we have been on our own and evolved WISEcode into a leading “foodtech™” company that applies the latest advancements in tech, artificial intelligence, machine learning, lab research and cloud computing to the food, nutrition and health industries to achieve knowledge about our foods never before available. WISEcode has built WISEdata™, the world’s most comprehensive food database, with over 15,000 attributes on each of the 650,000 foods—1,000 times more data than any other source, which is the foundation of transparency in foods. To build WISEdataTM we had to make sense of the ~2 million food ingredients terms and all the hidden ingredients that violate the GRAS laws and sensibilities. It was a full-on war against a food system that thrives on secrecy. And trust me, the industry hated it.
Then came the doubters. Critics claimed consumers didn’t want—or couldn’t handle—this much information. But we believe and trust people. If we could make it simple, intuitive, and actionable, people would embrace it. And they have. We are just getting started but people are embracing our simple codes to measure the quality of their foods. When we introduce the FOOD VOTE in about a month, we believe this is the beginning of putting the power back where it belongs, in the hands of consumers. We believe in humans and people making their own decisions for their lives, including which food to eat.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
WISEcode isn’t just an app, it’s a revolution against the food industry’s lies and loopholes. We’re here to torch the status quo, making food transparency the standard it should’ve been all along.
At its heart, WISEcode is your secret weapon for decoding what’s really in your food. No more guesswork, no more spin. We give you raw, unfiltered truth to help you make choices that actually align with your health and values.
Our Scan, AH-HA, VOTE is amplifying the community’s voice. It takes decades to reform ingredients via the FDA. But if the consumer’s voice is heard, it can put immediate market pressure on BigFood to improve the quality of ingredients. Our IQ Score ™ and 13 decoders are like a truth serum for your grocery cart. They expose ultra-processed junk, call out harmful additives, and finally solve the mystery of what the hell “all-natural” actually means. In just seconds, WISEcode arms you with the knowledge to take back control—because you deserve to know exactly what you’re putting into your body.
The Team. For people to join WISEcode, they have to be mission based souls who care deeply. Everyone talks about making the world better, my team is walking the walk. I am proud of them.
For years, the food industry has had us all under its thumb. They hide behind confusing labels, slick marketing, and a whole lot of lies. WISEcode is flipping the tables. We’re giving people the power to demand real, honest food and call out the BS when we see it.
And we’re just getting warmed up. When we introduce Scan, AH-HA, Vote, the Community Voice will be heard. These features that will turn the food system upside down. This isn’t just about knowing what’s in your food; it’s about building a movement that holds the entire industry accountable. No more pretending, no more lies—just the truth to empower each of us, individually and collectively to make good decisions for ourselves. As St. Augustine said: The Truth is like a lion. You don’t have to defend it. Let it loose. It will defend itself.”
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
Tenacity: The tenacity of the team and never ever giving up because of our belief in the importance of our mission. We believe in the good of people and their right to be informed so they can make the best decisions for themselves. There have been many lonely days in our journey but our tenacity has kept us going.
Seeking Truth: Relentless pursuit of the truth. From day one, we’ve been all about digging deeper, tearing down the walls, and asking the questions everyone else avoids—What’s really in our food? How do we give people the power to know? And we don’t quit until we’ve got answers that actually mean something.
Power of the people. “Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.” First as our team, then as we build our community, together we are a force to be reckoned with and make a difference in the lives of our loved ones.
Trust in People. It’s our belief in people that drives us. We know that when people have the right tools, they can make the best choices for themselves. Our success isn’t about confusing tech or endless data; it’s about empowering individuals to take control and start a movement that shifts the food industry for good. The revolution is just beginning, and we’re here to improve the food system by empowering people and building something that actually works for us and future generations.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://wisecode.ai/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wisecode.ai/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090083575846
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wisecode-llc/
- Twitter: https://x.com/wisecodeai
Image Credits
WISEcode