Fooducate’s Allergy and Gluten Free Scanner 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.
The Basics
I’ve been in the market for a new 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 asterisk (*) 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). (See image below.)
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.)
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: A, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, D+, and D, based upon the nutrition facts and ingredients included on the manufacturer’s label.
Barcode Scanning Feature
What is really exciting is that you can easily scan 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: Fruits & Vegetables; Carbs; 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. That’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: 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: 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 Scanner (formerly known as Allergy Talk and Fooducate for Allergies); read Fooducate’s recent press release; or get the iPhone App 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) lucky winners will each receive the following:
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.
What you should know
Disclaimer: 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.
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