Opportunity analysis project

Technology Entrepreneurship Venture Lab 2012

IdeaAllergo app is a mobile application to detect allergens in food items of mass consumption, focused on the Latin American market.

The idea is that people can check whether they contain ingredients harmful to your health quickly, having the ability to find substitute products in order not to overly restricted your diet.

Our Market Food allergies are ubiquitous worldwide, regardless of age and ethnicity. However, they are more prevalent among young children. Approximately 26% of the World’s population is 0-14 years old.

Also according to the statistics from Elucidare Limited on January 2011, about 10 million people in North America alone suffer from food allergies, and more than 9 million people in South America.

About Smartphones, they are becoming more and more popular in the U.S. and all over the world. As of March 2012, an analysis by Nielsen shows that 50.4% of consumers in the U.S. used smartphones. Forrester reports that by 2016 the world should have one billion smartphone users.

Allergens have become a more important health concern within the past decade. It is estimated that over 150 million people worldwide have at least one food allergy.

Our app will scan the bar code of the different products available in the main supermarkets to provide instant information on whether the product is free of allergens such as tree nuts, wheat, gluten, shellfish, eggs, milk, soy, peanuts and fish. The information will also include cross contamination possibilities. This way it will be easier for customers to buy a product and not have to worry that it is not safe for them to eat.

Value Proposition

Opportunity AnalysisFrom the validated information we conclude there’s a market opportunity because:

1. There is a proven need for this mobile app and the market is ready and in need for the technology.

2. There’s nothing out there developed and oriented (considering gastronomic culture and the penetration of mobile applications) for the latin american market.

3. People would be interested in the use of a mobile app that helps them when buying.

4. Latin American people are worry about buying items that can generate allergies.

Opportunity Analysis5. They don't have a tool that allows them to purchase safe.

6. We are finding out more and more that there is a proactive, positive attitude in the food allergy community to collaborate in order to bring better solutions to consumers. In this case, we found there are present efforts in retailers (restaurants) to adapt their business offering to meet the needs of consumers such as the gluten-free community.

7. There’s approx 124 million people in latin america who suffers of food allergies problems.

8. We find another food restrictions that we can include in our business model, like Gluten-free products, kosher, organic, simple dieting, pregnant food, and others. So allergies can be a start of a much bigger, useful and scalable application.

Opportunity Analysis9. There’s a necessity for the establishment of easy access channels between consumers and food producers to gain information about the processes and ingredients of food products of mass consumption.

10. We can infer that almost all of the market in latin america in 2015 will have access to mobile phone or web-based applications, so our app is developing relevant.

11. Health will be a big global issue in the coming years.

Opportunity AnalysisWe need to create the need for everyone in the value chain, from retailer to manufacturers, to get on board and provide homogeneous availability of information. This seems like a gargantuan task, but as we have seen its being done around the world with increasing success.

We understand that we face a chicken-and-egg situation here, since we won't get the users if we don't have the companies, and the companies won't come if we don't have a strong user base. The solution to this I think will come from partnering with networks such as this, leading,

Prototype This is a prototype application screen, which can scan bar codes of food products. The application then displays information about the product and if it has ingredients that may cause allergy to the person, who entering to the allergo app on a first instance foods that cause allergies.