Letting out a Yelp for Allergy Sufferers
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slice.mit.edu
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Each Friday, Antico took his family out to dinner. But since his kids had a variety of allergies–egg, dairy, and nut among them, Antico often ended up on edge as plates arrived, having no way of knowing which restaurants catered best to allergy sufferers.
Out of this quandary Antico created AllergyEats, a website and mobile app for parents like him. Modeled much like Yelp and other restaurant-review platforms, AllergyEats gives patrons a way to quickly search a database of 600,000 local restaurants that offer the best allergy-free foods.
“We’re filling a niche that no one else is filling at the moment,” says Antico. “We’re thrilled to see an increasing number of restaurants responding to the growing concern about food allergies and intolerances. Increasing numbers of restaurants are training their staff about food allergies and publishing allergy information on menus.”
Five years after launch, AllergyEats is now hosting an annual food allergy conference, partnering with reservations site OpenTable, and creating sub-communities specific to vacation spots like Disneyworld.
Ever the economist (Antico was a course 14 major), the hope now is to make AllergyEats profitable. “We finally have–in my opinion–the critical mass to kick in the revenue model and should do so this month,” Antico says. “You won’t see banner ads–I can’t stand those. We will partner with restaurants who want to enhance their listings on our site to hopefully draw more business.”
The site will remain free to consumers, who create accounts, contribute reviews, and rate restaurants based on their allergy-free experiences there.
With more than one in twenty-five Americans suffering from some sort of food allergy, Antico’s service is likely to be in demand for some time.
