Innovation

Public tools that put the science to work.

Alongside its trials and policy work, FIMI builds public tools that let clinicians, health systems, and food companies act on the evidence directly.

Population-Level Programs: illustrative image for the FIMI project “The Tufts Food Compass”

Signature tool

Food Compass

A comprehensive nutrient-profiling system that scores any food or beverage from 1 to 100 across 54 attributes spanning 9 health-relevant domains. Publicly available and free to use, Food Compass helps guide healthy food choices, industry reformulation, ESG metrics, and policy action.

54 / 9attributes across 9 health-relevant domains
1–100score for any food or beverage

See the Tufts Food Compass project

Mozaffarian et al., Nature Food, 2021

Clinical staff reviewing food-is-medicine implementation resources

Signature tool

Food is Medicine Toolkit

A guide for clinicians, health system leaders, and communities to design, implement, and sustain Food is Medicine programs. Related project work spans clinical education, culturally and linguistically relevant patient materials, and a business-value framework for health plans and health systems.

Browse the Food is Medicine Toolkit

Healthcare Capacity and Technology Development: illustrative image for the FIMI project “Development and Validation of a Nutrition Security Screener”

Signature tool

Nutrition Security Screener

A 2-question clinical screening tool with a brief preamble for identifying nutrition insecurity in patients and food is medicine program participants. It closes a real gap: the USDA’s eighteen-question household food security survey asks almost nothing about the nutritional quality of the food a household can access.

See the Nutrition Security Screener resource