Bryant first-year scholar needs to make eating out protected, enjoyable for these with meals allergic reactions

For most individuals, choosing a restaurant isn’t a life-or-death resolution. For folks with extreme meals allergic reactions, it may be. FACTCheckDining, developed by first-year Bryant University scholar Anderson Davis ‘29, goals to take away the concern of allergic reactions from an evening out.

“I was born with a bunch of food allergies,” says Davis. “I’ve had severe reactions and been to the hospital many times because of them. Eating out has always been a struggle.”

When he was youthful, Davis’s dad and mom did their finest to display screen eating places that the household might safely patronize. But as he received older, the accountability shifted to Davis as he started going out with associates. 

“Just walking in blindly to a restaurant, you have no idea what you can eat at all,” he says, “and that puts you in a lot of tough social situations, especially with friends. There have been instances where I’ve walked into a restaurant, looked at the menu, and had to say, ‘Hey, guys, I can’t eat anything here’ and had to walk out.”

FACTCheckDining helps mitigate each well being and social dangers by matching customers’ allergy historical past to restaurant menu data. 

“Users can create a personalized allergy profile where they can put in exactly what they’re trying to avoid from an allergy perspective, dietary needs, restrictions or sensitivities,” says Davis. “We include the top nine allergens recognized by the FDA: milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans, and sesame. We also have a custom allergen section where you can put in anything else you’re trying to avoid, including niche allergens that not everyone has or not every restaurant recognizes. I’m allergic to mustard, for example, which is hidden in a lot of little things like dry rubs on meat and barbecue sauce.”

 

Using particular person allergen data, FACTCheckDining creates map-based eating guides primarily based on menu data equipped by eating places and gathered from visits and on-line analysis. Each restaurant on the map receives an Allergen to Restaurant Compatibility Rating: “Many” signifies that the restaurant has an abundance of allergen-free eating choices out there, adopted by “Some Options,” “Limited,” “Small to None” and “Unknown.”

“All of the restaurants around you will be highlighted on the map,” says Davis, whose work expertise throughout highschool included stints as a server assistant at two native eating places. “From there, we give it a rating of red, orange and green based on your allergen profile.”

Davis sees the location as a partnership with eating places, who can show a FACTCheckDining badge of their bodily location and on their web site by absolutely disclosing their ingredient lists. “We’re saying it is a place that is going to be accommodating and keen to assist folks with allergic reactions, and we wish to ship you there,” explains Davis.

 “We’re saying this is a place that’s going to be accommodating and willing to help people with allergies, and we want to send you there.”

To date, FACTCheckDining has been self-funded by Davis, with critical partnerships with family friend (and lacrosse player) lead software engineer Clark Reboul; database and systems manager Dhiren Jashnani, currently an engineering program manager at Amazon; and marketing and social media campaign manager Caroline Hunt, a high school classmate. “The people helping me with this project are either working under equity or are contributing because they believe in the product and the company’s future,” explains Davis. 

FACTCheckDining is live online, but remains in development. It currently includes allergen information on 110,000 chain restaurant locations across the United States, with a city-by-city rollout with menu data on local and independent eateries planned, starting with Washington, D.C.

Davis stresses that while FACTCheckDining can be a helpful guide for people with food allergies, it’s not foolproof. 

“We can’t eliminate errors that happen in the kitchen, but we can provide people with the best allergy suggestion before walking into the restaurant,” he says. “It’s nonetheless  essential that you just’re asking all the correct questions. We cannot let you know what to eat, and we will not let you know what is going on on behind the home. But we will do our greatest, primarily based on the info and knowledge that we have gathered, to provide the most clear dining-out expertise.”

“We cannot eradicate errors that occur within the kitchen, however what we will do is present folks with the perfect allergy suggestion earlier than strolling into the restaurant.”

Davis, a Chagrin Falls, Ohio native who began thinking about developing a restaurant allergy guide when he was 10 years old, says Bryant’s entrepreneurial culture was a big reason why he chose to come to Smithfield, Rhode Island for college.

“I’m playing lacrosse at Bryant; I reached out through my high school coach and found a great fit,” says Davis, who has not yet chosen a major but has his eye on a business-oriented education. “[Bryant alum, lacrosse player and entrepreneur] Cole Braun ’25 has been a great mentor for me. Bryant’s physical College of Business school is a big draw, and the new Applied AI minor is really interesting to me. But all the people there who are focused on innovation and entrepreneurship was huge, because I see it as a great environment for me to grow my idea.”

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The potential market for FACTCheckDining is also huge. According to the nonprofit research, education, and advocacy group FARE (Food Allergy Research & Education), 33 million Americans have meals allergic reactions, together with one in 10 adults and one in 13 youngsters. 

Each 12 months, 3.4 million Americans have meals allergy reactions extreme sufficient to benefit a go to to a hospital emergency room.

“With so many kids being born with food allergies, we’re really focused on trying to make them less worried about dining out,” says Davis. “Avoiding that awkward situation where you have to walk out or you can’t have a meal with your friends is the real goal here, on top of general food safety. We’re trying to make people feel better about their situation and not be brought down by having food allergies, because they are so common.”