Simplify the lives and especially the food purchases of people suffering from allergies, of whom there are three million in France. This is the objective of the Allergenius application, available this Monday, September 30. By scanning the product barcode on Allergenius, allergens are identified, eliminating the need to read through numerous ingredients to determine which may be problematic. Its two creators, Antoine Barberin, student at Isae-Supaéro in Toulouse (Haute-Garonne), and Lazare Bonifay, student at the Sorbonne, have known each other since high school.
The idea for the application came from a family experience: “My sister developed several allergies at the age of 23, leading to social isolation when she was with family or friends,” says Lazare Bonifay. “Shopping takes twice as long to check everything. When I looked for new technology to simplify his daily life, I didn’t find anything, so Antoine and I decided to imagine an application signaling food prohibitions, according to the profile. »
After meeting and interviewing allergists and dieticians, they developed the algorithm allowing the identification of around fifteen allergens. If the product contains an allergen prohibited by a user, the application displays a red light. If it is authorized, the light is green. “To combat isolation, there is a community tab to share recipes, find alternative food or restaurants,” explains Antoine Barberin, who is already anticipating a future development: “We are ultimately considering extending the application to cosmetic allergens. »
Hosted at the InnovSpace incubator at Isae-Supaéro, the two entrepreneurs’ project won last June the third prize in the regional competition for student business creators (CRECE) in Occitanie, as well as, in May, the first “young shoots” prize from the Isae-Supaéro foundation.