I think this is the most excited I’ve ever been for the development of a product to help us folks who eat a gluten-free diet.
Do I have you on the edge of your seat now?
A company called 6SensorLabs is currently building a device which will allow you to check your food for gluten and see the results in real-time on your mobile phone. This is huge news, because I (and many of you) get sick and worry about getting sick far too often. Even the most well-intentioned wait staff and chefs are sometimes unaware of gluten hiding in things like spices, mixes, and sauces.
I’ve had way too many experiences with waiters telling me something is gluten-free only to find out it isn’t, when the damage has already been done.
So as you can imagine, I’m pretty over the moon about this news, and you should be too. So how exactly is 6SensorLabs going to do this? And more importantly, when can we get our hands on one?
6SensorLabs is a food testing startup located in San Francisco. Founded last year by two MIT grads with celiac, 6SensorLabs was started out of frustration with repeatedly wondering whether or not certain foods were safe to eat. The company plans to tackle other realms of food intolerance, but they are currently focusing all of their energy on a portable gluten sensor that will be able to quickly and discretely test food for even the smallest traces of gluten. It’s basically like doing a mini science experiment right at your table!
6SensorLabs’ Plans and Progress
They are using their current funding to make their product easy to use, affordable, and linked to a mobile phone app that when synced with the tester, will let you know whether or not the tested food is contaminated. So far their testing has been astoundingly accurate for finding tiny traces of gluten in food.
6SensorLabs has done all kinds of market research and surveying to make sure that their product answers the wants and needs of people eating gluten-free diets. They recently surveyed 600 people who suffer from celiac disease and found that the average respondent got sick about 30% of the time they ate outside the home. This makes it ever so clear that even with all of the knowledge and awareness out there and even with the steps we take to avoid gluten, there is still a major gap between trying to avoid gluten and succeeding.
What’s equally as exciting is the mobile phone app that will be synced with your tester, allowing you to update and share your results. This app will ultimately create the biggest database of scientifically tested gluten-free food all over the world. It could let you know about restaurants, specific dishes, places with frequent cross-contamination and so much more. Of course food databases aren’t always the most trustworthy when dealing with food intolerances, but we’ll have our portable sensors to take care of that problem!
Do you know of any other products like this? And if so, have you used them? Any commentary to add to the discussion on this topic would be great!
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