New Gluten Sensor Will Sniff Out Hidden Flour
Bready or not, gluten sensors are on the horizon.
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Got gluten? Many foods do, from the obvious wheat toast to the less-obvious breaded chicken breast. French fries might even contain gluten if they're prepared in the same oil as breaded onion rings, and ordinary veggies also get the gluten treatment if the chef made a sandwich and forgot to change gloves.
For those with Celiac disease or a gluten-intolerance, going out to eat can feel like a game of Stomach-Ache Roulette.
Thankfully, a startup called 6SensorLabs is here to help. Their solution? A portable device that can sense even minute amounts of gluten in food.
The company, founded by MIT alums Shireen Yates and Scott Sundvor, claims the sensor will be fast, discreet, and available for less than $150. That's roughly half the price of the Tellspec food scanner, which could also detect gluten alongside other ingredients—if it's ever released, that is.
The 6SensorLabs gluten sensor connects to a mobile app that allows users to share the results of their gluten scans with others, creating a vast and accurate map of gluten-free food options around the world.
With food sensors of all kinds popping up left and right these days, and gluten-free options finding a comfortable home on grocery store shelves, a gluten sensor feels both inevitable and extremely welcome. In the future, 6SensorLabs hopes to create devices that scan for other allergens as well.
The company recently managed to raise $4 million from investors, which it hopes will get the product to market early next year. That’s not far off, but some of us can barley wait...
Sorry.
Source: TechCrunch Hero Image: Flickr User "jirfy"(CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)