You probably already use your iPhone to get directions, play music, or look up movie times, but did you know you could use it to see whether your favorite restaurant has received a food safety violation?

Iphone applications have quite a bit to offer on the food front. If you’re in St. Louis and you must know where the closest Filipino restaurant is, iWant, Urban Spoon, or Yelp applications can help you in a jiffy. You can also use iPhone apps to find an open table at a nearby restaurant, track calories and ingredients, or calculate your tip.

As more stories emerge about the complexities and risks of the globalizing and highly-processed food supply, more consumers are looking for ways to get more information about the food on their plates and there are a couple of promising apps that help meet this growing demand.

A Guide to Food Safety iPhone Applications: Today’s Featured App: Food Watch New York

Here are Food Safety News’ must-see food safety apps: Breadcrumbs, HarvestMark, Food Watch New York, Locavore, and Good Guide. We’ll be featuring each one over the coming days.

Food Watch New York

Yes, this app is really only useful for New Yorkers, or those visiting the Big Apple, but we still love the concept. (They do also offer the same app for New South Wales, if you happen to be heading there.)

Food Watch New York takes New York City Department of Health data and puts it at restaurant-goers’ fingertips. You can look at a map and see which restaurants near you have failed health inspections or you can search by restaurant name before you make a reservation.

If you’re worried about sloppy food handling procedures or lax kitchen sanitation when eating out in NYC, then this app offers some peace of mind. Downloadable from the app store: $0.99 for the NY version and no cost for the New South Wales guide.

Here is a video demonstrating how the application works: