Get A Quick List Of Allergen-Free Foods Some Restaurant Chains Serve
Allergy Dine ($1.99) by NPD Solutions LLC Nearly a year ago I had one of the most terrifying knocks on my door in my life. A dear friend and neighbor of mine was standing there holding her toddler who was breaking out in hives. His hives and swelling were getting worse by the second and we lived in thirty minutes from a hospital. She needed to know if I had children’s Benadryl (I was so upset that I had none that day).
He had just been eating a calm lunch with his mommy when out of the blue he had a life-threatening reaction. Thankfully a friend of ours (an emergency responder) was nearby and got him enough Benadryl to keep him breathing until they could meet up with an ambulance. That sweet little one, who is like a nephew to me, was seconds away from suffocating to death. Now he lives with very real diet restrictions and an epi pen always nearby. It’s difficult for his parents to find restaurants he can eat at and foods he can have without going into anaphylactic shock.
Allergy Dine is an app for people with food allergies who want to have a quick reference tool at their fingertips regarding foods at popular restaurant chains they should be able to eat. It includes places like Wendy’s, McDonalds, Arby’s, Baskin Robbins, Boston Market, Chick-Fil-A, KFC, Panda Express, and a whole lot more.
Now, any app that attempts to be a reference guide for people with food allergies has no choice but to cover it bases legally. At the first open of the app you are asked to agree to terms of use. You are responsible to double check how kitchens are preparing their food (cross contamination) and stay up to date on things. Also, before you open up each menu, a view alert pops up reminding the user of the caution that should be taken to ensure the food is prepared without contamination.
Allergy Dine is easy to use. The main menu asks what foods you are allergic to and at this point only includes the most popular allergies such as: dairy, egg, soy, peanut, treenuts, wheat, shellfish and fish. I hope to see this expand in future to gluten but this is a good start. Definitely covers my three food allergies. I appreciate that you can choose more than one at a time. Once you have selected your allergies, you can go to the list of restaurants. Once you pick one, the app lists out all the foods that should be free of the foods you should avoid.
Nice and easy.
l would love to see the graphics improve a bit more in future and more restaurants regularly added. It wouldn't hurt for the font to be a bit bigger as well.
Overall this app is is easy to use and has a lot of people covered as far as allergies go, but still even more foods to eliminate would be a plus. There's a lot of competition when it comes to food allergy apps in the app store, and I hope to see this one continually add updates and information.
We have teamed up with the developer to offer our readers some promo codes. For a chance to win, simply hit the "retweet" button or comment below about how this app could help you. Contest ends June 5 at 12 pm EST.
