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Allergen App - Project Purpose

Why this application exists

Allergen App helps people communicate food allergens quickly, clearly, and consistently.

The app was designed for two main scenarios:

  1. Personal use: individuals and families store allergen profiles and share them with restaurants, carers, schools, or travel contacts.
  2. Business use: hospitality teams capture customer allergen needs, filter menu options safely, and support order workflows.

Core communication approach

The project uses a compact allergen encoding model:

  • Selected allergens are converted to a bitmask value.
  • The bitmask is also represented as a hex shortcode.
  • The same data can be shared as:
    • readable text and icons,
    • short codes (bitmask or hex),
    • QR content (public URL or specialist code).

This gives users multiple communication formats depending on context, language, and available tools.

Design goals

  • Reduce misunderstanding when communicating allergens.
  • Support multilingual communication for travel and mixed-language settings.
  • Keep workflows simple for mobile devices.
  • Provide a demo-safe business flow for menu filtering and order preparation.

Scope and safety note

Allergen App is a communication and workflow tool. It does not replace clinical advice, legal compliance checks, or formal food safety procedures.