Allergy and Gluten Free iPhone App (and iPad) Review and Giveaway

Fooducate’s Allergy and Gluten Free ScannerĀ is not just a gluten free iPhone app, and is also for iPads, but it’s an allergen app. It filters out the top 9 allergens in food products, but instead of wheat, it filters out gluten; and it includes lactose. The 9 allergens it is able to filter out are: Gluten, Lactose, Peanuts, Tree Nuts, Fish, Shellfish, Eggs, Milk, and Soy. (See image below.) The app includes over 200,000 products, including private label brands. And not only will you read my review and learn about the features of this app below, but Fooducate is giving away 7 free apps! Good luck in the giveaway!

UPDATE: This app does not support Android. Fooducate’s previous app does.

Image: Fooducate's Allergy Talk App - Setting for Allergens Screenshot

The Basics

I’ve been in the market for a newĀ gluten free iphone app, and I must say this one puts a new spin on apps, as this one can serve as a great gluten-free community in regards to gluten-free products, or allergy-free products, in general. You can chose up to 3 allergens to filter out at a time: gluten, lactose, dairy, soy, nuts, milk, peanuts, fish, and eggs. If all of the allergens you’ve filtered out is not contained in a product, a green asteriskĀ (*) will appear next to the item. If it contains one of your filtered allergens, a red asterisk will appear next to the item. You can click on the item to find the specific details about each allergen, e.g., contains gluten, or may contain dairy, etc. And there are added features such as Add to List (your personal list), and Alternatives (providing other brand choices).Ā (See image below.)

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Image: Fooducate Allergy Talk App Product Details

Discuss within the Community

And if you find an item’s ingredients have changed, and now includes one of the allergens you’ve filtered out, you may click on “Discuss” to inform the community and Fooducate will then update the item, once your information is verified, as you can take a photo of the label with your phone and upload it for all to see. (See image below.)

Image: Fooducate Allergy Talk App Discussion

Contact the Manufacturer Feature

And once you’ve entered the Discussion area you’ll find a button to contact the manufacturer. If it’s blank or incorrect, you may enter it so that the entire community will have access to the correct information. (See top right button in screenshot above.) Then once you’ve contacted a manufacturer you can add a note on what you found out. (See image below.)

Accuracy

I noticed that Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips were listed as “May Contain Dairy”. Knowing Enjoy Life is all about being allergen-free, as they only use certified allergen-free ingredients, I thought for sure this was an error. The only explanation I could think of was that Enjoy Life’s facility may manufacture other products which contained dairy, which I still believed to be doubtful. After some research, I discovered that Enjoy Life has their chocolate chips manufactured in another facility which makes other products that contain dairy. So, Enjoy Life tests their chocolate chips down to 2.5 ppm (parts per million) for dairy, prior to them arriving in their own facility. Needless to say, I was very pleased with the accuracy of this app! In addition to providing allergen information,

Grading Products Nutritional Values

Fooducate includes grades for each item in terms of nutrition. They are graded as follows:Ā A, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, D+, and D, based uponĀ the nutrition facts and ingredients included on the manufacturer’s label.

Barcode Scanning Feature

What is really exciting is that you can easily scanĀ barcodes within the app, and the product information automatically pops up. Of course, as is with all barcodes, some are harder to scan in than others.

Search Capability

Though you can search for any item by name or barcode number, such as salami, you can search or browse via the following categories, too:Ā Fruits & Vegetables;Ā Carbs;Ā Bakery; Breakfast, Dairy; Eggs; Meat, Fish & Other Proteins; Condiments & More; Baby Food; Prepared Foods & Soups; Salty Snacks; Sweet Snacks; Beverages; and Cooking & Baking.

I was truly amazed! I found dairy-free, soy-free, gluten-free mayonnaise. Thatā€™s awesome! I was very pleased that each brand was broken down into different varieties, and that the list of items was plentiful.

Additional Features

One of the screens in the app includes: Product, Messages, Find (Search), Lists, Healthy Me, Daily tips, Feedback, FAQ, and Settings. Most are self explanatory, but I thought you may be interested in hearing about a couple that are not.

Healthy Me includes an average grade of products you viewed this week, products that you’ve view all time, and products that you’ve “liked”. Yes. you can “like” a product, much like you can “like” a post on Facebook. What a great way to promote the products you enjoy, and keep track of the grade of product you enjoy. If it’s a low grade, it’s an indication that you may wish to rethink what you enjoy and find a healthier substitution.

Daily Tips are basically a mini blog providing tips on nutrition for a healthier you, and your family. You can read the first few lines and click on “Read This Post” to read more. The Lists section contains a history of what you have searched for and a shopping list which you can add to. How terrific is that?!

Compatibility

iPhone:Ā This app is supposed to be compatible with the iPhone 3G and higher, but the scanning feature did not work on my outdated iPhone 3G (can’t wait for the upcoming iPhone 5). Perhaps it’s a bug in my phone or the 3GS and higher is the best version for this app.

iPad:Ā The scanning feature did, however, work on my iPad. Just amazing! You can be in a store and scan an item’s barcode and find out if its an item that fits your allergy needs.

Conclusion

I am very pleased with this app, more so than with any app I’ve ever downloaded. So, if you have a gluten intolerance or allergy, or perhaps are allergic to any of the other top allergens, you have to give this one a try.

Find out more about Fooducate’s Allergy & Gluten Free ScannerĀ (formerly known as Allergy Talk and Fooducate for Allergies); read Fooducate’s recent press release; or get the iPhone AppĀ through the iTunes App Store. And be sure to update to the latest version! Or if you’re feeling lucky, enter the giveaway below for a chance to win 1 of 7 free Allergy and Gluten Free iPhone Apps. Good luck!

THE GLUTEN FREE GIVEAWAY

Eligibility

This giveaway is open to U.S. residence only, as the app is only available in the U.S.

Prizes

Five (7) luckyĀ winners will each receive the following:

  • 1 Fooducate Allergy and Gluten Free ScannerĀ app for iPhones

Suggested Retail Value: $4.99 each

How to Enter

Do step No. 1 below (mandatory), and then do additional steps for additional entries. Each comment counts as an entry.

  1. Comment on this post requesting to be entered in the giveawayĀ and explain why you wish to enter.Ā (mandatory).
  2. Like ā€œGluten Free Carlaā€ onĀ Facebook Page Ā and tell me you did so by stating so and leave your FB name in a separate comment below. (1 extra entry)
  3. Share this link (http://glutenfreerecipebox.com/allergy-gluten-free-iphone-app-ipad)Ā on Facebook either by using the link above or by clicking ā€œshareā€ on Facebook below; and leave a separate comment below stating what you did. (1 extra entry)
  4. Follow me on Twitter ā€œGFrecipeboxā€ and leave me your Twitter name in a separate comment below. (1 extra entry)
  5. Tweet about this giveaway, using ā€œ@GFrecipeboxā€œ in your tweet, along with this link (http://glutenfreerecipebox.com/crunchmaster-mutli-seed-gluten-free-crackers-review-and-giveaway) to the giveaway, and leave a separate comment below.Ā (1 extra entry)
  6. Follow Carla onĀ Pinterest. (1 extra entry)
  7. Leave a comment on any other recipe or article on this site, limit two, and state what you did below, in separate comments. Other giveaways do not count. And the comments do not count for other giveaways. (1 extra entry for each comment)
  8. Share this giveaway on any of the over 400 social net works by clicking the share button below and leave a separate comment below for each share you did. (1 extra entry for each share).
  9. Sign up for my newsletter at the top left of most pages, and leave a separate comment below stating you did so. If you are already a subscriber just leave a comment stating so. (1 extra entry)
  10. ā€œLikeā€ FooducateĀ on FacebookĀ and leave a separate comment below with your Facebook user name. (1 extra entry)
  11. Follow @FooducateĀ on TwitterĀ and leave a separate comment below with your Facebook user name. (1 extra entry)

What you should know

  • Giveaway ends at 11:59 pm PST on September 2, 2012.
  • The winner will be announce on this page on SeptemberĀ 3, 2012.
  • The winner will have until 11:59pm PST on September 6, 2012 to reply to the winnerā€™s notification email to supply us with their type of device. If they do not respond within that period of time, a new winner will be chosen. Therefore, use an email address you check often or check back to this site on SeptemberĀ 3, 2012 to view the winner announcement. The winnerā€™s shipping address, phone number and email address will be kept confidential.
  • The winner is chosen at random using a contest software application.
  • The winner will be announced at the bottom of this page.

Disclaimer:Ā Fooducate provided me with free samples of their products to try, and I was under no obligation to review them, if I so chose. Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a giveaway in return for the free products.

And the winners are…

Julie Osmonson

Laurie Powers

Marie Goldbeck-Strunk

Heather Ellingsworth

Rhonda

Todd Bliss

Cindy Blye

Congratulation to all!

See all current Gluten Free Giveaways.

25 Replies to “Allergy and Gluten Free iPhone App (and iPad) Review and Giveaway”

  1. i tweeted and followed fooducate tonight marie goldbeck-strunk hope I win!!!

  2. even if I don’t win I am so getting this app because I just went to their website and they even have it for android!!! thanks for the great find!!!

  3. I would so love to have this, I have two grandchildren with gluten/casein allergies. One of them has severe tree nut allergies and the other has ginger and GMO complications. Not to mention that the tree nut allergy is not my only complication. There is the Fructose malabsorbtion as well. So this would speed up my shopping since I am raising at least one of the grandchildren. Besides that we love to have the kids over with there GF/CF nut free fructose free friends over for special parties. OH boy would this help grandma and her friends in the kitchen and in the store! Thanks for reading ! And have a great day! ;)

  4. I would love to win this so I could try it out and share my thoughts with my celiac support group. Thanks.

  5. Between all the different food allergies that my family has it is so hard to shop for everyone. Add that to shopping with 4 boys this would be an awesome thing to have.

  6. This would be a great help when i go shopping it is so hard to read all the ingreds and know what they all mean. And to do this whit two kids either beating each other or running down the isle.

  7. I’m a 19 year old with Celiac Disease, which worsens my severe anemia. Knowing what foods have gluten and carry risks of cross-contamination with ease would be fantastic for me, and would help me in keeping my digestive tract healthy and undamaged.

  8. My daughter is in college and has a gluten allergy and it would be nice for her to be able to see things that have allergies

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