The app for allergies

With restaurants and stores opening back up (praise the lord), I am very excited to finally travel again (and by travel I mean discover new food places). For this weeks app of the week, we are focusing on those who have food allergies. Enter: Whystle

Did you know there are about 32 million people in the U.S. that have a food allergy? Scary enough, some don’t even know they have a food allergy until something happens. Just imagine how it must feel to go out and not be able to enjoy yourself because you fear not knowing exactly what you're eating.

Whystle is a cool app that analyzes information for a wide range of sources such as the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Whystle will find these and update you on anything in regards to food, children, and pets to keep you safe and worry-free. 

Here’s how it works:

Whystle has you customize your own profile by inputting information such as if you're pregnant, have children, food allergies, pets, etc., so it can find resources that best suit your profile. You then select from a list of common food allergies such as milk, peanuts, shellfish, and many others. After you're done customizing your profile, you will start to get alerts on the topics and criteria you chose. You can easily use the search tool to look up a brand or product you're shopping for to find out if it's free of your allergen. From there, you can save your favorite brands to get notified if there happens to be any recalls in the future.

Let's say you pick up one of your favorite brands of chicken to take home to your family. You’ve been buying this brand for years, but with the help of Whystle, you discover that it carries salmonella. This app helps you make those smart choices not just for yourself but also for your loved ones.

Whystle shows beyond the food chain, but shares product recalls on a wide variety of products. For example, if you're looking into buying a new stroller for your baby, researching some of the best brands can be pretty time-consuming, especially if you have a busy schedule. Whystle makes the process easier by sharing recalls on strollers and telling you how to get a refund. That way, you’ll think twice about buying the one that’s been popping up on your Instagram feed.

The app is compatible with Apple products such as iPhone and iPad for $3.99 per month or $23.99 for a full year (which is $2 per month) and offers a free 14-day trial.