Greetings! I’m Billy Grant. I’m currently studying Computer Science. I’ve started this blog to keep you updated on my research project, which has become something I’m really passionate about. It’s all about the intersection of technology, health and everyday life.

In this digital world, our daily routines have undergone a revolution – even cooking! Online recipes have become our go-to cookbooks giving us access to an array of dishes from cuisines right at our fingertips. For people with food allergies, navigating this landscape can be quite challenging.

What Are Food Allergies?

Food allergies occur when the immune system mistakenly identifies proteins in food as harmful, leading to reactions. According to Turner et al. (2015), these allergies have been on the rise in developed countries over decades. The factors contributing to food allergies are complex. They involve a combination of genetics and environmental influences (Muthukumar et al., 2020).

My research project is focused on addressing these challenges by leveraging data science to create a user web based tool that helps individuals with food allergies navigate their choices more easily.

Imagine how convenient it would be to have a tool that filters recipes based on your allergen restrictions. You can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that the recipes you come across are already customised to your needs. That’s what we’re striving for.

Who Will Benefit From This Tool?

Not only will this tool benefit individuals with restrictions caused by allergies, it will also assist those who cook for people with allergies, dieticians creating meal plans and even app developers looking to integrate this feature into their platforms.

Our main objective for this project is to create a web based tool using web scraping techniques and machine learning algorithms. This tool will gather recipes from sources and filter them based on specific allergen groups. We’ll measure its effectiveness by assessing how accurately it delivers allergen recipes.

Join me as we explore the world of web scraping, data science and user experience design—all with one goal in mind; making online recipe hunting safer and more accessible for individuals, with food allergies.

References

Muthukumar, J. et al. (2020) ‘Food and food products associated with food allergy and food intolerance – An overview’, Food Research International, 138, p. 109780. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodres.2020.109780.

Prescott, S. and Allen, K.J. (2011) ‘Food allergy: Riding the second wave of the allergy epidemic: The food allergy epidemic’, Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, 22(2), pp. 155–160. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1399-3038.2011.01145.x.

Turner, P.J. et al. (2015) ‘Increase in anaphylaxis-related hospitalizations but no increase in fatalities: An analysis of United Kingdom national anaphylaxis data, 1992-2012’, Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 135(4), pp. 956-963.e1. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2014.10.021.

Credits

"Food Allergens graphic" by USDAgov is marked with Public Domain Mark 1.0 .