The AllergyEats Blog

Allergy Eats is a database site that takes your experiences in eating out and makes it available to the world. Well, to the USA. I tried searching in Canada and was unable to. Hopefully he will expand .

Paul wrote the following, I follow that by his press release.

AllergyEats was 20 months in the making and lists over 600,000 restaurants that can be searched geographically and are sorted based on the restaurant’s level of  “allergy friendliness.”  This rating is derived from fellow food allergy and intolerant diners who choose to rate the restaurants by answering 3 simple questions.  Diners also have the opportunity to add comments to their quantitative ratings as well.

Want to advertise with us? marc @ eatnutfree.com

As a standalone restaurant database, AllergyEats is a useful tool for locating places to dine. In addition, however, I have included features such as allergen information, gluten-free menus, industry certifications, and other relevant information where available. The site will grow in value for those with food allergies or intolerances as more restaurants are rated and comments posted.

New Website Takes the Guesswork Out of Restaurant Dining for People with Food Allergies and Intolerances

BOSTON (February 24, 2010) – If you or a loved one is prone to food allergies, you know the challenges of finding a restaurant where everyone will feel comfortable.

That search has just gotten easier.

A new website, www.allergyeats.com, combines the best of Internet technology with peer-to-peer information to help people know in advance how well (or poorly) a restaurant responds to people with food allergies and other food intolerances, such as Celiac Disease.

The website lists over 600,000 restaurants in the United States and is searchable by geographic location, provides maps and driving directions, lists phone numbers and includes menus, industry certifications and other information of interest to food allergy sufferers when available.

Users are encouraged to help the rest of the food allergy community by answering three simple questions (takes less than a minute) about their dining experience. The answers are compiled into an objective “allergy-friendliness rating” that gives users instantaneous at-a-glance information about the “allergy friendliness” of specific restaurants.

There is also a place on the site for written comments, which will be monitored to ensure they contain only food-allergy related opinions.

“This site is an outgrowth of the difficulty I have in finding a place where my two foodallergic children can eat,” said Paul Antico, who spent 20 months researching and designing the site. There are about 12 million people with food allergies in the United States. Over 2 million people have Celiac Disease as well.

AllergyEats is endorsed by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) of Washington, the AAFA New England Chapter of Boston and the Gluten Intolerance Group of Auburn, WA, amongst others.

“In addition to helping people with food allergies, AllergyEats is a good tool for the restaurant industry,” Antico said. “Restaurateurs can see how their individual locations are faring, and can learn from comments about other restaurants what works and doesn’t work for people with food allergies.”

While there are other online sites for people with food allergies, none combines the comprehensiveness of the AllergyEats listings with objective ratings and comments area.

“AllergyEats is really a living, breathing organism that will grow and become increasingly useful as people share information on the site. I am happy to offer this to the food allergy community, and I can’t wait to see how it develops,” Antico said.

via The AllergyEats Blog.

Allerglobal

There’s a new site in town.

Allerglobal is offering a service to allergic travelers where they can print out an allergy awareness card in the language of your choice.

Example card, downloadable as PDF.

Qabiria introduces Allerglobal: A new website dedicated to travellers with food allergies

Qabiria Studio is proud to introduce Allerglobal (www.allerglobal.com). This new website is dedicated to people suffering from food allergies who travel abroad and need to explain their condition in a foreign language.

Allerglobal is a free on-line service that conveniently translates food allergies in almost all Central and Eastern European languages. It automatically creates a customized, accurate passport-sized card with the user’s allergy information in the chosen language. Users just need to print it, slip it in their wallet, and show it at restaurants, hotels, or wherever needed. This service is intended to contribute to a safer, more comfortable travel for people with food allergies and intolerances.

Built upon a database of almost 2000 terms, Allerglobal is the first food allergy translation tool that offers such a wide choice of languages: 7 source languages (English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese, Catalan) and 27 target languages (English, Albanian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, German, Estonian, Finnish, French, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Ukrainian). Moreover, Qabiria Studio is planning to double the number of available languages in the future.

Qabiria Studio is a language service provider based in Barcelona, Spain. Besides offering translation, training and consulting for the translation industry, Qabiria strives to make a creative use of language and technology to find smart new solutions for everyone.

via Allerglobal.

Candy Melts Make Easter Fun

I have been a fan of Vermont Nut Free ever since my son was diagnosed with allergies to peanuts and tree nuts four years ago. Their high-quality chocolates are now a staple in our household for pretty much all the holidays. And, with Easter around the corner, I’m putting together an order for their delicious chocolate bunnies. We’ll also be making some of our own Easter chocolates, which will be equally delicious, thanks to Vermont Nut Free.
Read the rest of this entry »

List of allergy-aware companies

The folks at http://www.avoidingmilkprotein.com  have a fantastic list of companies who are allergy aware.

http://www.avoidingmilkprotein.com/otherallergies.htm

I encourage everyone to have a look as these companies will ship to either Canada or the USA or both.  Have a look at the website as well as they don’t only deal with milk allergies, but with all others.  LOTS of great information.

Sample:

4everfree	Gluten, Dairy and Nut free baked goods New Zealand
Abby Fundraising	Always nut free fundraising cookie dough
Allerenergy bars	No Peanuts, Gluten ,Eggs and Milk, Dairy, Soy, Tree Nuts, Shellfish, and no Corn
Alpro Soya	Dairy Free alternatives to milk, yougurt and deserts (UK) dairy free gluten free mostly wheat free nut free enviroment
Amanda’s Own	Dairy-free, tree nut-free, peanut-free, egg-free and gluten free Candies and Chocolates
American Chocolate	Turn cholate in to art, print designs onto gourmet chocolates