In an intense environment like TechStars, filled with smart and extremely driven people, you might expect that things would get competitive among the teams. However, one of the most interesting things I’ve seen over the three years of the program has been the level of collaboration among the teams. I’ve seen them practice their pitches together, test product strategies, discuss approaches to getting investment, and share stories when things are going well and when they are not.

Two of the companies from TechStars 2008, DailyBurn and Occipital, have taken this collaboration even further and have formed a partnership to release FoodScanner  – the first food journal iPhone application that incorporates a barcode scanner to let users quickly input multiple variables of nutritional information.

DailyBurn is one of the fastest growing fitness sites with over 250,000 users and has been really innovating in the space of fitness tracking, including peer challenges and user-generated content.

FoodScanner pairs DailyBurn’s fitness, motivation, and nutrition expertise with Occipital’s powerful RedLaser barcode scanning technology. You just scan a food item’s barcode, and then tap the number of servings consumed. The information syncs with the your DailyBurn account or the app can serve as a standalone food journal.

Here’s a demo from DailyBurn’s CEO Andy Smith:

FoodScanner Demo from Andy Smith on Vimeo.

You can check out FoodScanner on the web or on the App Store.

I’ve written about entering fitness data before. The holy grail is when I don’t have to do anything at all to log my fitness data, but scanning a barcode is a nice step forward.