New Gluten/Allergen Detector - 2 minutes???
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KnitOrMiss
Posts: 10,104 Member
I just saw this on FB, and went out and found it online. I didn't price it at all, but if it works???!?!?!! LIFE SAVING!
https://nimasensor.com/
It is a detector that you put a piece of a food into it, and it checks for gluten in 2 minutes...
https://nimasensor.com/
It is a detector that you put a piece of a food into it, and it checks for gluten in 2 minutes...
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Hey, @KnitOrMiss, I post regularly from my inbox to the Gluten-Free Forum here. MedScape sends me all the latest studies on Celiac disease, NCGS, etc. Here's the email from August.
New post in my inbox the other day....
Passing it on as I am looking forward to getting one of these:
Reuters Health Information
Want to Detect Gluten on the Go? There's a Device for That
By Ben Gruber
August 31, 2016
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A California startup has developed a portable technology that will allow consumers to test their food for gluten on the go.
"Even when you go out and see these labeled menu items, you are still playing Russian roulette," said Shireen Yates, co-founder and chief executive of NIMA, which was founded in 2013.
Designed in San Francisco by a team from MIT, Stanford, Google and Nike, NIMA can analyze any type of food or beverage for gluten down to 20 parts per million, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) classification for gluten-free products.
"There is still cross contamination, there is miscommunication, you just never know," Yates added.
An estimated 15 million people in the United States have some form of food allergy or sensitivity, a statistic that is on the rise, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Users of the device are instructed to fill a disposable cartridge with a pea-sized sample of food and then load it into the device, which is about half the size of a smartphone.
Roughly two minutes later, after the device measures the chemical reaction between antibody proteins and gluten, the screen will display a happy face if no gluten was detected.
Conversely, a wheat icon and text that reads "gluten found" will appear if any gluten is detected.
According to Yates, the antibodies bind to the presence of gluten if it is present in the sample, triggering a change that a sensor picks up on, Yates said.
To date, the company has raised $14 million in total with the help of a $9.2 million Series A round of venture capital funding earlier this year.
The funding, Yates said, will drive the company's next generation sensor, which consumers will be able to purchase as soon as 2017 if they want to detect milk and peanut allergens in their food as well.
Yates is launching an iPhone application to complement the device, allowing users to share their results.
The first orders of the gluten device, priced at $199, are expected to ship out to customers by the end of the year.
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I have already read about this detector, but too pricey for me at the moment, apparently it is pretty accurate though.
I don't eat out much because I have been glutened too many times. The pain is just not worth it for me. Once the price comes down, I will seriously consider buying one of these.0 -
Me too Bonny!
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My SO used to make fun of me and gluten till I had an "accident" at his place (crispy onions with wheat???!!! Ugh) Once he saw the full effect, he's turned into a "gluten nazi" in a good way, always questioning, reading labels, calling restaurants, and ensuring everything we eat can be made GF.
This gadget looks to me to be something we who suffer should get on prescription, I know this will not happen, but it would make our lives so much easier and more painless.
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So...it will detect and report what the FDA considers to be a "gluten-free" level (less than 20 ppm), but that doesn't necessarily help...for me, even gluten-free products can trigger a reaction, so for someone with a severe allergy that can be triggered at even gluten-free label levels...this isn't any more accurate than the labels they are already reading...0
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Sounds like an interesting tool...I got glutened a few weeks ago and it was not pleasant. I think I lost 2 pounds in an hour. I try to be super careful, and despite this I sometimes wonder if staff just think it's a trendy dietary thing that most people don't really need to worry about. I haven't been glutened often, but the last time was one of the worst.0
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I honestly can't see this working. At work we sell Gluten Free food and the lab has pretty new gluten testing lab equipment and I know the test takes a while and it took a long time for the lab techs to really know how to work the equipment for accurate test results. Just be careful at $199.00.0
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Seems pricey, especially as the tubes you put food in are one time use, and you by 12 packs and such. And it does make sense for it to be available by prescription or OTC, much like diabetic testing meters are...
@tcunbeliever - That is frustrating. The op ed thing I read didn't say that it's that ... obtuse. That's frustrating...0 -
I often feel like @coloradoartstudio ...like staff thinks we're all on a fad diet. I have a handful of restaurants I eat at in my town and a small selection of offerings that I have deemed safe. Since I've cut back on where and what I go gluten incidents have decreased. This would be such a handy tool for when I'm outside my comfort zone.1
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If I go to a new restaurant, I look up their menu online first and see if there are any possibilities that are already likely GF or could easily be made GF. Then I phone them and tell them that I need to be gluten free. If they ask me if it is because of an allergy, or if it is a dietary choice, that is a good sign. If they ask me if I have Celiac disease, that's an even better sign! Then I get to explain about cleaning the grill, using fresh utensils etc. If I can get that far and they are still 'friendly' it's likely a keeper restaurant although I keep checking that it's the same kitchen staff next time I visit, lol.
I'm waiting to see how well the the testers work in real life and not just lab testing.0
