Week 4 EOC: An App for That - Food Allergies and Eating Away from Home

It seems as though the general public is becoming increasingly aware of various kinds of food allergies, food intolerances, and alternative diets or lifestyles, and restaurants are responding to this health food revolution by vastly changing their menus. Therein lies a problem, though – there are so many different lifestyles that it can be hard to accommodate all of them, try as a hardworking business owner might. People with allergies, intolerances, or even simple food preferences can find the experience of trying comfortably eat away from home to be laborious and difficult, effectively ruining the experience for themselves and eating establishments alike.

In order to solve this issue, I propose the creation of an cell phone application that first takes a person’s immediate food restrictions and current location into account, and then proceeds to scour local eateries’ menus for sufficient recommendations on exactly where that person can potentially eat, without fear of being let down, accidentally poisoned (for lack of a better term), or secretly scrutinized or scowled at simply because they cannot or will not consume certain ingredients. With proper care and attention, such an app could become a sort of lifeline to those who, initially, would refuse to eat away from the safety of their own refrigerator.

There are two ways this app could be designed, each with their own potential drawbacks and appeal. The first implementation would require software that scans local menus, looking for key words and narrowing one’s food choices in that way. The downfall here could be that a simple software design flaw, miscalculation, or misunderstood ingredient may eliminate safe eating options or suggest unsafe options. The second implementation requires the cooperation of restaurants in nearly all places in offering certain meals or safe eating options, which would, of course, be an incredibly time-consuming endeavor that must take menu changes in innumerable establishments into account at all times.