The purpose of SafeEats is to make eating out or ordering in at restaurants more accessible for the entire population, specifically people with food allergies and dietary restrictions. The software has the potential to serve a large population, as it is estimated that around 33 million Americans have at least one food allergy, in addition to the people who have some type of dietary restriction. The project was conceived by a sophomore majoring in Business and Biology at UNC-Chapel Hill, and it is presently on its second iteration in the course.
Currently, people with food allergies and dietary restrictions have a difficult time eating out at restaurants. They have to be extremely cautious about ingredients and cross-contamination, or else they may have a reaction to the food. However, many restaurants do not offer straightforward menus with all of the ingredients. Moreover, the customer would have to go through the entire ingredients list and/or ask the restaurant workers about the ingredients, which can be a tiring and lengthy process. Many people with food allergies and dietary restrictions are then forced to opt-out of eating at restaurants for the sake of their health and time, making it harder for them to try new cuisine, eat out with friends, and more. In general, the inaccessibility can make people with food allergies and dietary restrictions feel excluded and overlooked.
SafeEats aims to mitigate this issue by providing an intuitive and user-friendly application that would make eating out more accessible. With the application, users will be able to select and save their food allergies and dietary restrictions in their profile. When users search and find a restaurant, the software automatically parses through menu items and their ingredients, so that users can immediately see which menu items meet their specifications. This would allow users to bypass reading through the menu or asking restaurant workers to decide on which dish they would like to order. Hopefully, eating out and ordering delivery would become more efficient, less stressful, and safer for people with food allergies and dietary restrictions, allowing them to eat out whenever they want to. In effect, SafeEats would help make restaurants more accessible to more of the population.