Stars look to Adelaide mum for tips to feed kids: ‘Supermarket Swap’ app hits 60,000 downloads

An Adelaide mum who just wanted to feed her kids ‘real food’ is now considered a supermarket hero to parents across the nation, including some very high-profile ones. Here’s how she did it.

Nabula Brdar, pictured with her 4-year-old daughter Ella, is inspiring parents across the nation to serve up ‘real food’ through an app that has been downloaded 60,000 times. Picture: Brett Hartwig

An Adelaide mum’s simple mission to serve her children “real food” has evolved into a reported “seven figure” success story now driving the shopping aisle choices of high-profile parents such as Bec Judd, Kayla Itsines, Jessinta Franklin and Natalie Bassingthwaighte.

Nabula Brdar’s Supermarket Swap app which aims to provide shoppers quick and easy access to healthier, additive and preservative-free options has been downloaded more than 60,000 times and is said to be steering $3m worth of sales at checkouts across the nation each week.

The 42-year-old former magazine advertising executive and mum to Beau, 7, and Ella, 4, said she never planned to become a supermarket hero, initially just wanting to be better informed about the grocery items she was buying and feeding her kids.

Adelaide mum Nabula Brdar’s Supermarket Swap app has been downloaded 60,000 times and is being used by some of the nation’s most high profile parents. Picture: Supplied

“My son, aged three at the time, was having some behavioural issues and someone suggested I try cutting preservatives and additives from his diet,” she said.

“I thought, ‘we eat pretty well, we don’t have a lot of junk food, I cook a lot’ but once I started to look more closely, I was was amazed by how many artificial ingredients were in the everyday supermarket foods … bread, yoghurt, tinned tomatoes, tomato sauce.

“It was an eye-opener.”

She also discovered ingredient lists were complex and hard to understand, containing codes and additive names she didn’t understand.

“I started looking for foods with real and recognisable ingredients that you would have in your pantry such as flour, salt, sugar … and I started swapping to these products,” she said.

Her friends quickly caught on to the idea, asking her insights be shared.

“They were all busy career mums and hungry for information, so I started a 10-person Facebook group,” she said.

But word spread and next came an Instagram page.

“I’d initially thought people would be like, ‘who is this woman talking about supermarket products?’ but it just blew up,” she said.

“It was amazing.

“People were reaching out and messaging me, telling me when they went to the supermarket, they’d have my Instagram page open … so, I thought, I can do better than that, I can create an app.”

She engaged an app developer and set about the task, with the help of a food scientist, dietitian and nutritionist, of researching “every additive and preservative” approved for use here – about 350 – before trawling supermarket shelves and comparing products.

The app, which covers about 2000 items stocked at Coles, Woolworths and Aldi, also notifies users when something is on sale – to help budget conscious shoppers.

Nabula Brdar (pictured on right) has teamed up with Rebel Tidmarsh to grow in popularity and create an app to help people make better, healthier choices that cost less at the supermarket. Picture Supplied

The app includes a meal planner and recipes such as this Tandoori Chicken. Picture: Supplied

Now, with the support of business partner, Rebel Tidmarsh, also a mum of two, and an expanding workforce, the platform is continuing to expand and develop, offering meal plans and recipes with a range of planned enhancements about to be rolled out.

Ms Brdar can’t help but shake her head at the app’s 24-month success – and reach.

“But I am genuinely passionate about helping ease the mental load for parents who are trying to navigate supermarkets for the best products but are being fed things on packaging that can be deceiving,” she said.