Allergy tracking app to ease shopping difficulties created by French students
Innovative app by students helps allergy sufferers scan products and share tips, enhancing supermarket experiences.
Allergenius promises to make life easier for people with allergies
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Two students have developed a free app to help people with allergies identify unsuitable products in supermarkets and share tips with other users.
Called Allergenius, users can log their allergies on the app and then scan the barcodes of supermarket items to determine whether they contain any ingredients they are allergic to.
Users can also interact with each other to post recipes and ask questions about their allergies.
The app is available on the Apple app store, with plans to be available on Google Play in the future.
It was developed by students and friends Lazare Bonifay, 23, and Antoine Barberin, 22, after Mr Bonifay’s sister suddenly developed allergies to gluten and other ingredients at the age of 23.
She noticed she lost a lot of time in supermarkets checking for allergies. Mr Bonifay looked in vain for a technological solution before deciding to come up with his own.
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At-a-touch allergy information
“The idea is to try and make life easier for as many people with allergies as possible,” he told The Connexion.
The app uses a community-based open source to find the information, and is partnered with various supermarket brands to keep it up to date.
If users come across a product that is not included, they can report it in the app and it will be added as soon as possible.
“Very, very few products are not included,” said Mr Bonifay.
“My sister loves the app and can now do her shopping hassle-free.”
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The students have been working on the app for around six months in their spare time and have liaised with allergy specialists to fine-tune it.
“While it has taken a lot of our time, we enjoy doing it so it is not difficult,” said Mr Bonifay.
“The most challenging part has probably been the technical side – the coding for the app – but that is Antoine’s job, not mine. It is exciting and stressful to see our work being launched, but we are very proud,” he added.
“Our long-term plan is to help as many people simplify their life as possible. For example, we would like to offer individualised recipes that replace common ingredients, which is why we are working with allergy specialists.”
They won two student grants in order to finance the app.
