FAQ'S
FAQ’s
Why would someone need your site when there are so many FREE cookbooks and online resources available now for people with food allergies and intolerances?
The number and combinations of allergies and intolerances are many and varied which is why it is a very difficult population to cater to. The best recipe sites in our opinion are blogs created by people experienced in managing allergies and intolerances. The problem is that most blogs focus on a narrow selection of food restrictions and/or do not have sophisticated search mechanisms.
Given recent advancements in technology and the growing use of the internet, we thought it was time that a dedicated and highly sophisticated website, was developed by and for "Foodies with Allergies or Intolerances”.
Not only is there an epidemic of people with food allergies and intolerances, but there is also a fast growing population of people with multiple food restrictions. In fact the idea for the site was born, out of the frustration experienced by one of the site creator’s, to manage her own child’s multiple food intolerances. While cookbooks and cooking shows are immensely popular, none cater adequately for this population.
We are passionate about tackling this problem and it is our aim to make our site so user friendly that even those with multiple restrictions can feel somewhat normal again.
By eliminating inappropriate recipes with the click of a button, members can focus again on what they would like to eat rather than what they can’t eat and save themselves, time, money, food waste and a lot of frustration.
Why did you use a membership model?
Our greatest desire is to relieve the burden associated with restricted diets by:
-Making nutritious and delicious recipes available for those with even the most restricted diets.
-Making it safer and easier for others to cater for them, so that they don’t have to feel like social lepers or suffer negative food reactions due to food preparation mistakes.
-And to create an ‘online community’ to help health sufferers feel less socially isolated.
There is so much to be gained by tapping into the collective wisdom of the allergy/intolerance community. Though there may be wide variations in the type of food allergies and intolerances experienced by individual members, the lifestyle impacts remain the same. We want to facilitate the development of a world wide community network, to enable our members to help each other with practical and emotional sharing and support.
The only effective way to do this is through a membership model.
Why has the site change from a ‘Free’ site to a ‘Paid’ membership site?
While we were developing the site, we enabled free member access, but in order to continue to expand our services we now must charge a fee.
Our primary focus is on growing our recipe data base and providing education and support to ensure that our members’ greatest needs are being met.
Since the site went ‘live’ on the 14th August 2010, we’ve added hundreds more recipes and we have recently completed a major site upgrade.
The upgrade ensures data accuracy, enables faster recipe uploads and categorizes by 'diet' which is great if you are following a particular dietary protocol.
Our customized search facility has also been expanded to enable recipes to be selected on the basis of 20 different food categories.
There is no other website like it and it is ONLY $2.48 a week ($9.95 a month).
What risks and benefits of completing a member profile when I join?
Please view our privacy policy if you have any concerns, but rest assured we will not sell or share your data with anyone and we won't spam you. In fact the reason we recommend that you complete a member profile, is to enable you to control what communications you receive from us.
You can ensure that you will be notified about information and events that are relevant to your condition (For example: If you are a celiac and we happened to be interviewing a ‘world expert on celiac disease” you would be notified).
Conversely, we can also ensure that you are not bombarded with mass email broadcasts about topics of little relevance to you.
What if I join up and discover that you do not have the recipes I need for my health condition?
Because of the manner in which we designed our software, we are technically able to cater to most conditions, but there are so many special dietary needs that it is unlikely that we will have all the bases covered. We are always researching, testing and adding recipes to the site and we are very happy to focus on certain recipes if asked.
We can only prioritize if we know what you need, so PLEASE let us know. You can email us anytime at info@theallergymenu.com.
If you complete a member profile, we will be better able to spot the deficiencies in our database, without you sending us an email.
We ask that you keep in mind that we are a team of two. We work very hard to meet all of our members needs, but we’ve only been in operation a short time. Please keep your communications respectful and feel free to unsubscribe if you are not completely satisfied.
Can I be sure that the ingredients in recipes are correctly categorized?
Over 600 Ingredients have been categorized across 30 fields within the data base, using the latest scientific data. This ensures that all recipes will be correctly categorized as soon as they are entered into the database. (Not individually categorized by the person entering them as was previously the case).This safety feature removes the greatest risk of recipes being incorrectly categorized, through human error in data entry. It also significantly speeds up the process of recipe entry, which will enable us to grow our recipe data base at a much greater speed.
How did you prioritize what allergies and intolerances you catered for within the data base?
90% of food allergies relate to eight different foods. Allergens able to be selected for exclusion at The Allergy Menu include: Gluten, Wheat, Dairy, Eggs, Soy, Fish (& Shell fish), Nuts (Tree Nuts & Peanuts), Corn, Sesame Seeds and Yeast.
The Allergy Menu is also the first website to offer a search function to cater to people sensitive to naturally occurring food chemicals, such as salicylates, amines, glutamates and oxalates.
We also now cater to a growing number of people suffering from irritable bowel syndrome (I.B.S.). Research conducted by the world renowned Australian Dietician and Nutritionist, Dr Sue Shepherd, has demonstrated that the symptoms I.B.S. can be alleviated when reactions to fructans, fructose, lactose, polyols and gluten are assessed and managed.
The site now also enables people to search according to special dietary protocols. These include:
- Gluten free/casein free diet,
- The Gut and Psychology Syndrome Diet. (GAPS)
- The specific carbohydrate diet (SCD)
and more.....
Where do you get your recipes?
Pauline has collected, tested and adapted many recipes in her efforts to find suitable alternatives for her own daughter so, she had a great many tried and true recipes to add to the site from the beginning.
Since then we’ve been adapting and testing recipes ourselves and adding contributions from our members and associates.
Because of the need to ensure recipes meet our strict requirements, it has been a time consuming process, but we think that it is far better to guard the integrity of the site’s data than to have 1000’s of recipes that are of no real value.
We anticipate that we will be able to grow the data base with much greater speed now that we have upgraded.
Can I get my own recipes added to the data base?
We would love you to contribute your recipes. We will be clarifying our guidelines in a document and publishing it shortly, so that you can learn the specifications that we require. In the meantime, you can send us your recipes and if they meet our criteria we will publish them (fully sourced with you name of course). Email recipes to info@theallergymenu.com.
How can I connect with other members?
In 2012 we plan to add a forum to the website but in the meantime we have a thriving face book page where you can connect with others.
Who are your Expert Advisors?
We are currently expanding our Advisory Board and creating a page with all of our experts biography's, credentials, interests and web links.