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.

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.
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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.

‍Anaphylaxis is a common and potentially life-threatening reaction to food allergies:

If someone like Mihir accidentally consumed a food item that triggered an anaphylactic reaction, it would be life threatening.
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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.

Aller-Free, a fast, intuitive app that scans items to alert users if they are allergic

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.

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.”

Such feedback reveals that current, existing allergy scanning apps cannot reliably alert users. We did not find any apps that addresses all these flaws.

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