In recent times QR codes have become popular again: the non-contact ease that they have has really been useful in a pandemic where contact with other humans has been discouraged.

QR codes have been around for a long time – first designed in Japan in 1994 for the automotive industry but now more commonly found on websites, application and advertising boards.

Only last week my Samsung Mobile device did an update and within that update it put a QR scanner on the phone as a base application.

Here at Allergen Checker, we have embraced this little code for our system in order to transfer the information from a restaurant menu to the customer.

Very often we get reports from allergy sufferers about going into restaurants and being made to feel very uncomfortable when declaring that they have an allergy. The colour floods out of the waiter’s cheeks as he understands his customers needs. He needs to write and remember what the customer can’t eat, go back to the chef, who clearly doesn’t care and throws the allergy file at the waiter (because he is busy trying to serve the other 100 customers who all sat down within the last hour all ordering their 3 course meals that need to be served asap).

The waiter arrives at the table with this folder, for the customer to then read through and find the relevant information to make that informed choice.

You might think what I have described above is fiction, but it really is not, it is probably a best-case scenario. I have known restaurants to refuse allergy sufferers as that is their policy or sign a disclaimer.

Here at Allergen Checker we find this inappropriate, uncooperative and out of date.

We believe at Allergen Checker that we need to stop alienating the 2 million plus food allergy sufferers and people with intolerances in the UK. Why would you alienate so many customers and discourage them from dining in your restaurant? I am working closely with an author (Heather Landex) on how we can stop alienating food allergen sufferers from restaurants. Her new book will help restaurants work through and change the mentality and embrace a more profitable environment for all to dine safely. (Please follow the link for more information https://book.heatherlandex.com/)

Allergen Checker software now enables you to create a specific QR code for the menu you have built within the software. The QR Code is downloadable and then can be placed on to the physical menu you give to your customers. As we played the previous scenario out the waiter can now advise the customer that all the information is all on the menu, all they have to do is scan the QR code and they can make an informed decision without any fuss or manual reading.

For us at Allergen Checker this breaks all barriers down and gets the best information to the allergy sufferer in the most informative way without the embarrassment or making your customer feel different.

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