Our Dietitian Difference
My name is Jen, I’m an Accredited Practicing Dietician (APD) with a Masters of Nutrition & Dietetics. I have worked in a number of settings including aged care, men’s health, bariatric and private practice, which has ultimately led me to specialize in the space of allergies, intolerances and specialty diets.
I was Foodini’s very first employee and have been closely involved in developing the Foodini DietaryAI solution since the beginning. It is rewarding to solve the issues surrounding personal dietary needs, especially when it comes to eating out.
But it is even more exciting to think about the opportunities ahead of us. Our DietaryAI technology and data allow us to evolve our solution, include more diet types and help to power the wider food service ecosystem!
In my spare time, you’ll likely find me baking bread, taking long walks, enjoying pilates or lots of laughs with my family and friends.
Love,
Jen
Our team of dieticians are a combination of Accredited Practicing Dieticians (APDs) and Registered Dieticians provide the Human-in-the-Loop (HitL) safety layer and continuously train and improve our DietaryAI.
The team checks the ingredient and allergen information for each menu item on our platform so that you can dine out stress free! Every menu you see, has had a pair of dietician eyes screen it.
However, not every menu comes with complete information, so it’s important to understand how we have distinguished the two levels of dietician interaction:
Dietician Verified:
Dietician Verified Venue
For those with food allergies or intolerances, we recommend viewing “dietician-verified” venues as our dietician team has directly worked with the restaurant staff to confirm ingredient and allergen information (and preparation processes), to highlight meals which are suitable, or not suitable for various dietary needs.
The “venue info” section on each restaurant listing holds additional information about the venue’s kitchen setup, food allergy training, food safety protocols, pantry composition or anything else that can be relevant to people with allergies or intolerances.
While our team makes best efforts to maintain all information accurately and in a timely fashion, we ultimately don’t prepare the food on the day. Therefore, diners should always disclose their food allergies and intolerances with venue staff before dining or ordering their meal.
Dietician Verified restaurants will show ‘Dietician Verified Venue’ in green underneath the venue name. Our users can limit their search to dietician verified venues only with a toggle switch in the Foodini app and web app.
Dietician Screened:
‘Screened Restaurants’ are restaurants that our dietician team have reviewed based on all publicly available information, however we have not worked with the restaurant to confirm these details.
Where information is not available, our team will use their food composition, allergen knowledge and our technology to create generic recipes with common ingredients, likely to be present or used to create a meal.
We follow a worst-case approach, meaning we will assume the presence of expected allergens based on the recipe if it is unclear. While this might flag a dish as not suitable if in question, it makes sure we don’t greenlight food that’s not good for you.
If you have a food allergy or intolerance please ensure you flag this to the restaurant before dining or ordering your meal. Especially when considering menu items that have not been verified.
For those with food allergies or intolerances, we recommend viewing “dietician-verified” venues as our dietician team has directly worked with the restaurant staff to confirm ingredient and allergen information (and preparation processes), to highlight meals which are suitable, or not suitable for various dietary needs.
The “venue info” section on each restaurant listing holds additional information about the venue’s kitchen setup, food allergy training, food safety protocols, pantry composition or anything else that can be relevant to people with allergies or intolerances.
While our team makes best efforts to maintain all information accurately and in a timely fashion, we ultimately don’t prepare the food on the day. Therefore, diners should always disclose their food allergies and intolerances with venue staff before dining or ordering their meal.
Dietician Verified restaurants will show ‘Dietician Verified Venue’ in green underneath the venue name. Our users can limit their search to dietician verified venues only with a toggle switch in the Foodini app and web app.
‘Screened Restaurants’ are restaurants that our dietician team have reviewed based on all publicly available information, however we have not worked with the restaurant to confirm these details.
Where information is not available, our team will use their food composition, allergen knowledge and our technology to create generic recipes with common ingredients, likely to be present or used to create a meal.
We follow a worst-case approach, meaning we will assume the presence of expected allergens based on the recipe if it is unclear. While this might flag a dish as not suitable if in question, it makes sure we don’t greenlight food that’s not good for you.
If you have a food allergy or intolerance please ensure you flag this to the restaurant before dining or ordering your meal. Especially when considering menu items that have not been verified.
FAQ About Our Dietician Process:
FAQ About Our Dietician Process:
We work very closely with our restaurant partners to verify their menu. Our partners supply their current menu along with the ingredient list, and/or allergen matrix which allows our DietaryAI to analyse and tag the menu items on an ingredient level.
Then a draft menu is created and the dietician team will have an onboarding call with head chefs or senior staff to confirm any remaining questions regarding the menu items.
In addition, we discuss the venue’s cooking practices, spaces & setup, processes in place to reduce food cross contamination all the way to whether or not dedicated GF fryers or toasters are in place, for GF items.
After the final confirmation by the venue, the menu will be LIVE on Foodini!
We have developed our onboarding process to create the minimal amount of friction for our restaurant partners as we know a Chef’s time is valuable.
Smaller menus with clear ingredient information can require mere minutes, large menus with a high ingredient count can take longer.
The vast majority of the work is done on our end, so our restaurant partners only have to verify any uncertainties, their processes, and setup.
All menus on our platform have been screened, or fully verified by our DietaryAI with the Foodini dietician team as the final gatekeepers.
We are a team of 6 at the moment, with a combination of Accredited Practicing Dieticians & Registered Dieticians, who train our Dietary AI and provide the Human-in-the-Loop safety component for our data accuracy.
Our team is here to reflect the reality of a venue’s menu and be transparent in their menu offerings, rather than to ask for changes which may not be feasible.
More often than not, our partners happily accommodate menu changes for dietary needs, and work very hard to provide a safe,delicious and enjoyable experience for all diners. They may share these modifications with us and we’re able to highlight substitutions on our platform.