The podcast linked above is my digital artefact for the subject BCM214. For my DA I have created an innovation called ‘Freedom Foods’ which is an app that aims to help people with any dietary requirements. These dietary requirements include gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, refined sugar-free, soy-free, egg-free, fish-free and meat-free. This ‘help’ is delivered in the form of recipes, a shopping list generator, a barcode scanner and an educational blog. The features of the app work together to achieve the projects aim of improving every aspect of the user’s wellbeing.

I have chosen the form of a podcast to present my DA and have created a ‘public service announcement’ scene where I host a podcast called Health First and within the episode I am launching ‘Freedom Foods’ as an app that I helped create. I have taken a very conversational, casual approach to my language in this podcast. For me, it made sense to deliver the details of Freedom Foods in a palatable way – opening up space for a wider audience to jump on board.

There was extensive research involved throughout the development of this project and although there were a wide range of sources that influenced my innovation, I will just outline my findings surrounding need, competitors and potential benefits and harms of Freedom Foods.

I begun by pulling together evidence that there was a need for an app like Freedom Foods. I collected facts such as:

• IBS affects 3-in-10 people, of this 60-65% are women (IFFGD, 2022)
• Food allergy rates among children are on the rise – greatest cause milk, nuts, fish and eggs (Santos, 2019)
• 20% of Australians avoid one food category, whilst 12% and increasing are poly avoiders (more than one food category) (Noone, 2016)

I then researched competitors for Freedom Foods- helping me develop something that was unique:

• The Woolworths app – Small scope of healthy recipes. Don’t target dietary needs and don’t offer optional substitutes (Woolworths, 2022).
• The Sunee app– Refinement options and nutrition advice. Costs $15.99 per month. Nutritionist approved recipes (Sunee, 2022).
• Coeliac Aus app – Offers a barcode scan feature to identify which foods contain gluten. Only cater to gluten restrictions (CoeliacAus, 2022).

I then researched potential benefits and harms of Freedom Foods:

• Sritharan, 2022 conducted a study investigating the hidden mental health issues that people with allergies experience. The benefits of Freedom Foods that I identified were that it saves users time, energy and money whilst educating them and giving them a better quality of life and improving mental health.

• Burchi, Fanzo and Frison, 2011 reported on the consuming nature of technology. A potential harm of Freedom Foods that I identified was that our users could interoperate our nutrition advice incorrectly and potentially neglect certain nutrients that they need.

In conclusion, I set out with a clear aim to increase the wellbeing of people with dietary requirements and through the development of each feature of the app, I was successful in achieving that.

References

Burchi, F., Fanzo, J. and Frison, E., 2011. The Role of Food and Nutrition System Approaches in Tackling Hidden Hunger. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 8(2), pp.358-373.

Coeliac Australia, 2022, Website, viewed 20 May 2022  <https://www.coeliac.org.au/s/>

 Dr Santos, A 2019, ‘Why is the World Becoming More Allergic to Food’, BBC, viewed 20 May 2022, <https://www.bbc.com/news/health-46302780>.   

IFFGD n.d, Statistics about IBS, International Federation for Gastrointestinal Disorders, viewed 20 May 2022, <https://aboutibs.org/what-is-ibs/facts-about-ibs/statistics/>. 

Noone, Y 2016, ‘One-in-Three Australians Avoid Gluten, Dairy or Meat: CSIRO’, SBS, viewed 20 May 2022, <https://www.sbs.com.au/topics/voices/health/article/2016/09/26/one-three-australians-avoid-gluten-dairy-or-meat-csiro>.

Sunee, 2022, Website, viewed 20 May 2022, <https://www.sunee.com/> 

Sritharan, A 2022 ‘The psychological impact of allergies’, New Food, viewed 20 May 2022 <https://www.newfoodmagazine.com/article/164420/the-psychological-impact-of-allergies/>

Woolworths 2022, Website, viewed 20 May 2022,  <https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/discover/about-us/woolworths-app>