It has been developed by an Aberdeen-based start-up company founded by Barry Leaper, who says his free app could help allergy sufferers, and those who shop for them, easily see which products are safe to eat.
He said: “Finding suitable products for your allergies is hard enough, but with the current situation it causes even more stress and anxiety.
“With the additional fear of needing to go to hospital due to a reaction at this time, we see more people with allergies restricting which products they buy. But if the supermarkets do not have these products available or are in short supply then this causes additional worry. This is even more distressing if you have to self isolate and rely on home deliveries, or others to do your shopping for you who do not fully understand the implications or severity of substituting similar products that might have an ingredient you are allergic to.”
“Our technology in the LiberEat app, is designed to make it easy to find food you can eat safely. By selecting the ingredients you or your family members need to avoid in your profile, our system allows you to search and it quickly filters products to show you what each person can and can’t eat. The app also allows you to scan barcodes so you can quickly check if the product is suitable, helping you to find safe alternatives you might not have known about.”
The LiberEat app was developed with nutrition experts from The Rowett Institute and Robert Gordon University and is supported by the Anaphylaxis Campaign. It is free for users and checks for 14 major allergens and also filters results for vegetarian and vegan options for over 100,000 food products.