This Device Could Be A Savior To People With Food Allergies

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Having a food allergy is not only frustrating, but it can also be fatal. Eating out can be one of the scariest events for a person who has food allergies. You never know if a restaurant may put something you are highly allergic to into your meal.

An MIT graduate may have found the solution. Shireen Yates has invented a food-allergy detector device that can be used at the dining table. She has co-found a company to sell it with former MIT classmate, Scott Sundvor.

The transportable food-allergy detector is calld Nima. Yates is allergic to gluten, soy, dairy and egg, while Sundvor has to avoid gluten because of his ulcertive colitis.

“I was tired of answering the same questions (and really hangry at the time). I just wanted a quick, easy way to test a piece of the dish and see for myself if it was gluten-free,” said Yates.

Nima is No. 17 on the inaugural CNBC Upstart 25 list of promising young start-ups.

According to Yates, “it’s a pregnancy test for food!”

Yates and Sundvor won an MIT $100K Accelerate competition to help them start the financing of the device.

A Nima peanut sensor is expected to launch this fall.