Nov 10, 2008 10:28 am US/Eastern
Site Helps Those With Food Allergies Save Money
BOSTON (CBS) ―
The numbers are staggering. About 12 million Americans now have some type of food allergy, many of which can have deadly reactions.
Even more have other types of dietary restrictions. That can make a trip to the grocery store not only confusing, but also costly, reports CBS station WBZ-TV in Boston.
Now a local entrepreneur has come up with a way to make it easier, and cheaper, for consumers who need these specialized foods.
Shoppers told WBZ that it can be very hard to figure out what's in the products on the store shelves.
With so many processed foods for sale, it's difficult to keep track of just what ingredients are in each product. For example, soy sauce and red licorice often contain wheat.
That would be a problem for someone like Kathleen Reale of Hopkinton. She has celiac disease and can't eat anything with gluten, a protein found in wheat and other grains. She said it was very confusing for her when she was first diagnosed.
"I walked around the supermarket kind of in a fog, saying 'I can't eat this, I can't eat that," she said.
She has created www.befreeforme.com to help people like her figure it all out. Its goal is to not only educate consumers about which foods they can safely eat, but to help them save money, too.
"I am going to have a coupon book that goes out four times a year, direct to people's real mail boxes to offer them savings and coupon codes and ways to save money on a restricted diet," Kathleen said.
That could be a big help in tight times. Specialty foods can often cost two to three times more than their traditional counterpart. One shopper thinks that the manufacturers charge more for these items because they know that consumers like her don't have a choice. She added that it can be very expensive to do her shopping.
Since living with a food allergy is like walking through a mine field, Kathleen hopes her Web site will make things a little easier for families.
"It's a life-altering change when you get diagnosed with a special dietary requirement, and I think that the coupons are going to help you, as well as the sharing."
Kathleen says this approach to helping people with food allergies and dietary restrictions is the first of its kind. The coupon book should be available in the first quarter of 2009. You can sign up for free on her Web site.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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