1. A method for template based recognition of food product information comprises: capturing an image of food product packaging; extracting an attribute from the image; finding, in a template database, a template matching the attribute, in which the matching template identifies data redundancies in the image; extracting, by referencing the matching template, food product information from the image; using the data redundancies to cross check the extracted food product information; transforming the food product information according to user defined preferences; and displaying the transformed information to a user.