Identifying allergens and intolerances in food products through the use of a mobile application

Abstract

Modern society habits have an impact on the way we eat, often leading to the consumption of ready made meals. As more and more ingredients are added to our daily diet some people have developed food allergies. Since there is no cure for food allergies, the best practice is to avoid them by carefully reading the product labels. Internet enabled smartphones are easily available today and there are already several applications that can help the user to live a healthier lifestyle by providing coaching plans and inviting the user to exercise more. This work introduces the design, development and implementation of an economic mobile software solution that can give the end-user a good support in identifying allergens in products. During the elaboration of this thesis, a prototype was created to provide a proof of concept mobile application. This prototype included a database, web services and a smartphone mobile application.