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This year, we had the pleasure of meeting the team behind Spokin, Inc – a mobile app for people with food allergies, which you can download here! As a fellow member of the food allergy community, we are always excited to connect with other brands and programs and help spread knowledge and awareness throughout our community. We also teamed up with them for a fun allergy-friendly holiday feature, complete with an exclusive recipe from Chef Kendra!
Read on to learn more about the app, and how it can help you navigate through your life with food allergies:
Introduce Spokin to us!
Spokin is a mobile iOS app (android coming soon!) for people with food allergies or celiac that provides all the resources you need in one place customized to your allergens, location, and interests.
What was the motivating force behind the creation of Spokin, Inc?
Spokin was founded with a mission to create a world of “yes” for people with food allergies. Our founder, Susie Hultquist, left her career on Wall Street to create the product she wished existed for her daughter with multiple food allergies. The idea was born between conversations she had with other food allergy moms who shared invaluable tips that made her life easier — everything from finding an allergist to buying a birthday cake. Spokin is the one place that puts all of this information and collective knowledge in one place. You can find food products, safe restaurants, camps and more. It is like carrying your inner circle with you wherever you go.
What can users do on the app?
In the app, users can discover products that are safe for them like Enjoy Life Foods Mini Chips, view the ingredient label, allergen statement, and reviews from other users. They can search for resources they need, whether it is a restaurant in New York or a video on how to use an auto-injector in under a minute. People are sharing what has worked for them and making recommendations — everything from restaurants and food products to airlines and allergists; there are 15 categories on the app (with more coming soon!) users can use to recommend.
What has been your favorite part of growing as a platform?
Seeing recommendations come in from all around the world is amazing. The meaningfulness to us comes from the number of people we are helping. People are eating ice cream for the first time instead of running at the sound of an ice cream truck. We have people who have traveled to New York and were able to search for the best restaurants to try. The food allergy community is so generous with their knowledge and so willing to share all of this valuable information.
How can users get the most out of the app?
There is something for everyone in the app. Whether you are newly diagnosed and need resources or have been living with allergies or celiac for years and are looking for a new restaurant — what you see is up to you and completely customizable.
One feature that our users really love is being able to swipe and see ingredient lists for all of our food products and in many cases the allergen statement too! Every product reviewed will show who recommended it and what their allergens are, adding a level of detail that helps users make safe choices.
How do you work with food brands?
Brands are added organically to the app by user recommendations. We create our own content for our website and love to feature brands that are going above and beyond to make their products allergy-friendly and highlight all of the amazing work they are doing. Our goal is to provide food allergy families with as much choice as possible. We love it when we get to introduce people to new brands or familiar brands with new product lines in hopes of increasing their list of foods that are safe for them.
How do you hope to grow and expand in the future?
We are laser focused on creating the best destination for families managing food allergies. We have gotten really great feedback since our launch and we’re excited to start rolling out new app features in the new year. Food allergy people are telling us what they want to see and we’re building it out for them.
We plan to build a version of our app for Android in the near future. We are currently concentrating on the US but have international in our sights and are well on our way to providing a really powerful global resource. It all builds with every user that signs up. We have only just scratched the surface of what we will be able to offer people. It’s all really exciting!
Any other comments?
With food allergies being one of the fastest growing conditions out there, we are excited to build this platform for not only food allergy families but for their children as they begin to self-advocate. If every person with a food allergy or celiac gave five recommendations, we would have a database of 100 million resources for people with allergies. Imagine what that could mean for a family with food allergies! Less time researching, more time living life.
Excited for this awesome resource? We thought you would be! Don’t forget to download the app and see what it’s all about!