Overview
Created start-up for mobile app that helps save time, reduce anxiety, and increase safety for people grocery shopping with severe allergies or food restrictions
👩🏻💻 My Role: Product Marketer
🤝 Team: Group of 3
⏰ Duration: September 2019 - July 2020
⚒️ Tools/Skills: Entrepreneurship, Product Thinking, User Research, Market Research, Presentations, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Microsoft Office
The Problem.
Buying food should be worry free. But tiny packaging labels, ingredients changing in certain products, and rushed purchases can ultimately lead to fear, anxiety, and a lot of time wasted.
Our Solution.
Aller-Free is a mobile app that easily tells the user if a food product is safe to consume by scanning ingredients and instantly comparing them to a preset list of allergies to inform the user if the product is safe or not and why.
Imagine This:
It's Christmas, and a young boy stands in the center of an aisle at a local supermarket, surveying the racks full of cookies around him. For most children, this would elicit cries of excitement; however, because of his allergies, this boy would need to sift through each package and carefully read each label to find one brand that he can eat.
This boy’s name is Mihir, and he is allergic to dozens of common food products like eggs and dairy. Our friend Mihir experiences this scenario not just on Christmas, but on a weekly basis. Every week, Mihir’s family spends up to 5 hours grocery shopping for foods that he can eat; the small and complicated ingredient label texts resulted in hours wasted looking for suitable food. This makes shopping in a rush hard, but purchasing the wrong product could be fatal.
Recognizing a Global Issue
Anaphylaxis is a common and potentially life-threatening reaction to food allergies:
200,000 people in the U.S. require emergency care from allergic reactions per year
5.6+ million children face these problems in their lives, along with their families struggling to keep their kids safe
If someone like Mihir accidentally consumed a food item that triggered an anaphylactic reaction, it would be life threatening.
Much of this stress is put onto the caretakers, who struggle to shop for groceries to keep their child well while maintaining a tight schedule. Sometimes, they may skip rechecking labels, which is dangerous if ingredient lists change or if a certain ingredient is listed under a less obvious name. When families are shopping for weekly groceries, a fatal consequence like anaphylaxis should not need to burden their minds.
Solution Proposal
Aller-Free, a fast, intuitive app that scans items to alert users if they are allergic
Works without Wi-fi
Android & iOS compatible
Uses Machine Learning
1.
Create allergy profiles for different family members
2.
Toggle a list of ingredients, and the app will automatically scan for over 300 additional derivatives of those allergens
3.
Scan ingredient with click of a button
4.
Instant results alerting if product is safe or not
Aller-Free ultimately streamlines the grocery shopping process, eliminating the stress of shopping while accommodating the many dietary restrictions of loved ones.
Target Market
Individuals with allergies
Caretakers shopping for family members with allergies
People with poor eyesight and have trouble reading small labels
Competitor Analysis
One user on the app Ipiit:
“I scanned 10 items at Walmart… only 3 worked [and] the others were not in the system.”
User on the app Allergy Lookup:
“Eggs were not detected in any products that I scanned including mayonnaise. My allergy is life or death.”One user
Unique Selling Point
1.
Converts ingredient labels to text on the spot through machine learning technology: doesn't use potentially misleading or outdated databases
2.
Can create multiple, customizable profiles
3.
Greater versatility: ability to input own allergies even if they are not on the default list of allergens
Freemium Business Model
Customer Acquisition Plan
Meet the Team
Reflection
Final Result
Aller-free started off as one small idea and expanded into a reality of an app. This project was submitted to the Diamond Challenge competition, where our team places in the semi-finals. A beta version of the app was launched on iOS and Android for initial users and testing.
*Note: Unfortunately, we have put a pause on the Aller-free project for now
Self Reflection
Through working on this project, I learned about the process of making a product into reality, from defining a problem, innovating a solution, to researching target market and competition, and outlining a business plan.
Aller-free was the project that made me realize how passionate I was for creating impactful and meaningful solutions to problems people face.
Feel Free to Check out my Other Projects!
