When you have a food allergy, buying prepared food or eating in a restaurant can be a nerve-wracking – and potentially even deadly – proposition. A portable food sensor called Nima can ease your mind by testing your food for allergens before you eat it.

At the moment, Nima can only test for gluten; in the future the company hopes to add functionality for other common allergens like dairy and peanuts. All you have to do is put a small sample of the food into a test pod, close the lid, and snap the pod into the testing station.

The pods contain antibodies there were developed by the team of former MIT students who created Nima. The antibodies only react with gluten; if gluten is detected, the sample undergoes a chemical change that the sensor can read. In just two minutes, the testing station can tell you whether the sample contains gluten levels above 20 parts per million.

A simple red light or green smiley face let you know whether the food is safe to consume. The kit is small enough that you can carry it without embarrassment into a restaurant. Other food testing kits involve test tubes, chemical mixing, and much less convenient methods to check up on your meal’s safety. Nima makes it easier to ensure you won’t suffer from an accidental dose of something your body really doesn’t get along with.

The post Know Your Food: Sensor Gives up Allergen Info in 2 Minutes first appeared on Gajitz.

Whether it’s pollen, animal dander, or a certain type of food, millions of people around the world suffer from allergies. We have medications to treat allergic reactions and other medications to lessen the effects of seasonal allergies, but so far there’s no universal preventive measure for all allergies. Scientists at the University of Eastern Finland are correcting that issue and may have it on the market in as little as five to seven years.

The antibody immunoglobulin E (IgE) is the cause of allergic reactions. It causes white blood cells to release histamine, which then causes a whole mess of nasty allergy symptoms. The Finnish scientists believe that they can genetically modify the IgE-binding structures in allergens so that they no longer bind to IgE, but can still interact with immunoglobulin G, which protects from allergic symptoms. By injecting this altered antibody into human bodies, the scientists believe they can prevent allergic reactions, which is sweet news for all allergy sufferers.

The post Sniffle No More: Scientists Create a Universal Allergy Vaccine first appeared on Gajitz.

For people with severe food allergies, eating any packaged food can be dangerous. Even if an allergen doesn’t appear on the ingredients list, there is a chance of cross-contamination from other products made in the same facility. There is no easy way to tell for sure whether a certain item contains the substances to which you’re allergic.

Design school graduate Sebastian Goudsmit built his graduation project around the goal of helping people with food allergies stay safe. He developed the Allergen Beagle, a simple in-home gadget that can detect the presence of peanuts, hazelnuts, gluten, shellfish, lactose, soy, egg, sesame and almonds.

The device seems easy enough to use. You put a small sample of the food you want to test into the appropriate test tube (there’s one for each allergen). Then you put the tube(s) into the Allergen Beagle machine, switch it on and a test strip tells you if the selected allergen is present.

Goudsmit hopes to continue development of the device so that it can test for a wider range of substances. If the Allergen Beagle is produced and the price point is low enough for the average allergy sufferer, it could help to prevent tons of medical emergencies and plenty of patient discomfort and fear.

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