It’s estimated that one in five kids with autism is on a special diet, according to a recent study by the Interactive Autism Network at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. Despite growing controversy surrounding gluten-free or casein-free diets, many parents strongly believe it is beneficial, but implementing the diet can be difficult given the complexity of food labels. But a new iPhone app allows us to read grocery labels with a simple scan of the product’s barcode.
FoodEssentials Scanner (99 cents on iTunes) reads a barcode and taps into a vast database of labels, bringing up all of a food product’s ingredients for you to easily read on screen. Have a particular food allergy? The app allows you to customize a search to quickly identify this ingredient in products. Or, compare a product’s ingredients side-by-side on the iPhone screen, making an educated choice on which brand is best (like which soup offers the least sodium, for example). The easy-to-use search options and visual warnings (“bad” ingredients are signaled with a red icon) make for quick shopping—letting you get back to what’s important: addressing your kids’ forever question: “Mom, what’s for dinner?”
