UTC student, Kaylin Underwood, develops app to alert people if food they are buying has ingredients they are allergic to (image: WTVC)
Kaylin Underwood battles gluten intolerance..
“I was just trying to go through this diet thing to see if it would help my health at all and skin and all that,” she said.
It is a problem she has faced for at least one year.
Underwood said it is easy to overlook ingredients on food labels that can cause a flare-up when she is grocery shopping.
That can be a common issue for the other 32 million people in America the CDC says have some sort of food allergy.
“You’ll miss it,” Underwood said. “You’ll be distracted by other kids, other people you’re talking to. You’ll give it to your child and they’ll have a major allergic reaction, possibly resulting in death.”
It gave this UTC student an idea.
Underwood is creating an app called “AllerX,” the winning pitch in UTC’s annual “Hatch It” competition in November.
“That was the big step to get my foot in the door,” she said.
Underwood said it will alert people if food they are buying has ingredients they are allergic to.
Here’s her vision:
In the app, you can list all of your allergies in a profile and add any family members or friends.
Then you can use your phone in the grocery store to scan an item’s barcode. If any ingredients match what’s on your list, it will turn red.
Chattanooga nutritionist Ed Jones is a fan of the app.
“We don’t have time to spend 10 minutes on one product and google and look and see,” he said.
Jones said his own sensitivities to things like MSG, a popular flavor enhancer, nearly ruined his health.
“You have brain fog, fatigue, gut issues, diarrhea, you have constipation,” Jones said. “All of this plays in the immune system, which means you get sick more often.”
Underwood wants her creation to change people’s thinking and more.
“I hope this app will save lives and their time and their anxieties to go way down,” she said.
Underwood said she has a long way to go to finish the app.
But by winning UTC’s competition, she took home $2,000 that will all go toward getting it on the market.
Underwood wants “AllerX” to be on the app store by the beginning of 2021.
Underweood is planning to link the app with healthcare and insurance providers to hopefully offer customers benefits and discounts.
"ingredients" - Google News
January 24, 2020 at 07:37PM
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UTC student develops app to help spot allergens in ingredients - WTVC
"ingredients" - Google News
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