A new, colourful kind of xo barcode technology, developed by a Spanish firm, is being adopted for the first time in food packaging in the UK.

It aims to help blind and partially-sighted people identify products in shops, and access health and safety information about food.

"I generally don't go shopping anymore because I can't do it without any kind of help," explains Beth Fowler, who is 19 years-old. "Because I can't see, practically… most things."

She is a pupil at St Vincent's School in Liverpool, a specialist school for people with sensory impairment.

"Shopping in supermarkets is a complete and utter pain," adds Marcia Shaw, 20, a recent graduate from the school, who is sight-impaired too. The store layouts keep changing, and you have to get help from assistants to find what you need, she explains.

But new technology is being rolled out that may help provide a solution to some of these problems.

The school has been taking part in a trial with cereal manufacturer Kellogg's. The company has been testing out colourful barcodes on its packaging that mobile phone cameras can easily pick up using an app.

Normal barcodes, or QR codes, can be challenging for blind and partially-sighted people, because it takes a lot of dexterity to focus and frame them correctly, at close range, on a phone's camera.

These colourful ones can be detected at a distance of up to three metres, and in low-light conditions.