Using his own restaurant as a beta test, Jay Ferro has launched technology to keep tabs on nutritional information while dining out. And the results are promising.

Since the introduction of the Nutricate receipt on April 1, business at Silvergreens has skyrocketed. Sales were up 20 percent in the two months following the launch of the receipt. In June, sales were up 35 percent.

"Essentially it is telling customers that you value their health," Ferro said. "I'm not saying everything is healthy, but there are choices, you can make it as healthy as you want."

And the customers aren't the only ones supporting Ferro's idea. Dennis Cagan, founder, chairman and chief executive officer of the Santa Barbara Technology Group, was one of the original investors in the company, and Edward Birch, chairman of the board for Santa Barbara Bank & Trust, also owns share in Nutricate.

The Nutricate receipt lists the calories, fat, carbohydrates and protein in any customized order. The data is applied to both a 2,000- and 2,500-calorie diet in order to equate percentages of daily nutritional values.

Already, companies such as Dole and Spectrum Fitness are advertising on the receipts, by including blurbs like fitness tips and nutritional quizzes as well as offering coupons. Nutricate receives payment for every receipt printed with an advertisement.

Fact boxes are also provided, based on the personalized order. For example, if a customer orders a turkey sandwich, the receipt might suggest, "Did you know? If you hold the provolone cheese on your sandwich, you will save over 50 calories and three grams of saturated fat!"

Nutritional information has been collected for each of about 300 ingredients used at the restaurant, which prepares all menu options from scratch, including fresh bread. Receipts are then calculated based on specific orders, such as sandwiches requested with no cheese or mayonnaise.

At the launch of the receipt, Nutricate worked with University of California, Santa Barbara students and professors to develop and implement a survey to tally customers' opinions and input on the new information.

Between April 1 and May 31, 1,057 customers were surveyed. Eleven percent of those visited Silvergreens for the sole purpose of trying out the Nutricate receipt. Eighty-nine percent said they wanted restaurants to provide more nutrition information. Fifty-five percent said that the availability of the Nutricate receipt would make them more likely to visit the restaurant.

But Ferro, a UCSB graduate himself, does not see his success stopping there. Ferro said the company is constantly working on improving its technology, and intends to market the receipt to other restaurants as well.

First, Nutricate is working on a new system, called Nutricate Version 2.1, which does not require software to be adapted to the variety of point of sale systems (or cash registers) that are available.

Instead, the new system will connect the POS terminal to a Nutricate computer that will in turn send all of the order information to a server. The customized data will be sent back to the register and printed on a receipt in the same amount of time it would take the register to process the information itself.

"We are in stealth mode," Ferro said. "We're not showing it to the world, but targeting who we believe would benefit from it." But companies have contacted Nutricate despite the lack of marketing.

Although Ferro said that Nutricate is "in discussion" with both local, independent restaurants and national chains, he is holding off making any deals until Version 2.1 is completed, which is expected to be in September.

Ferro has ensured the success of his idea by securing two patents on the receipt. When he got his initial loan for starting Silvergreens 11 years ago, Ferro used about $30,000 of it to secure patent protection.

Companies will not be required to pay for any services either. Start-up costs will be offered for free, based on the understanding that initial advertising revenue from the receipts will be used to pay off the original costs of installation. After that, Nutricate would split the revenue with the restaurant. "The receipt you've been throwing away all these years is now valuable," Ferro said.