This past summer, a waiter at a restaurant in Italy reassured my brother that the flakes on top of his tartare were pistachios—not almonds, which he is allergic to. Reassured, my family dug into our appetizers, only for the waiter to come racing back outside a few moments later to warn him that they were indeed almonds.
Luckily, my brother hadn’t ingested enough to trigger a reaction, but someone with a more serious allergy could have been in deep trouble. On average, someone goes to the emergency room in the U.S. every 10 seconds because of an allergic reaction to food. After experiencing his own daughter go into anaphylactic shock, a businessman in France founded a company that is now developing a pocket-sized device to avoid these very situations.
Inspired by a personal experience
While portable tests for food allergens already exist, startup Allergen Alert claims its eponymous product to be the world’s first portable device that can identify gluten or allergens in food with precision previously seen only in laboratories. A company press release emailed to Gizmodo describes Allergen Alert as a “pocket-sized mini lab” that uses a patented one-time-use pouch that automatically executes a professional test. The team unveiled it yesterday at the trade show CES 2026.
“When my daughter Margot went into anaphylactic shock, I experienced what too many families know all too well: the fear that life can change because of a single meal. I realized we needed an extra safety belt; a way to test food anywhere, at any moment,” Allergen Alert CEO and founder Bénédicte Astier said in the press release. “That moment of awareness is where Allergen Alert was born: the belief that technology can transform fear into confidence, and allow everyone to enjoy a meal without feeling like they are risking their health at every bite.”
An allegedly straightforward process
The battery-powered device, which the company claims will be available for pre-orders at the end of the year, works by putting a food sample into the single-use pouch, putting the pouch into the device, and pressing a button. The analysis’ results should be available within minutes, providing individuals with allergies and/or celiac disease with an extra tool in a toolkit that already consists of ingredient lists, labels, and restaurant staff—most of whom I trust are more informed than the one my brother dealt with. The team also says that the device could have broader applications in contexts such as water testing and environmental monitoring.
The patented pouches will cost less than $10 each, according to the press release, not including the cost of the device itself. While adding $1 on top of every restaurant meal is one thing, if it ends up being closer to $8 or $9, that might be a stretch for some people.
Plus, it remains to be seen whether the device is really as precise and easy to use as the company claims. While it says it’s working with allergists, allergy patients, and experts in food safety and the restaurant industry, the website doesn’t point to any peer-reviewed studies. The company also didn’t address the device’s detection thresholds, which can be critical for people with sensitive allergies. What’s more, it’s not clear which specific allergens the device can reliably detect or how well it performs across various food types. Finally, the device doesn’t appear to be approved by regulators as a medical or diagnostic tool, raising concerns for people with life-threatening allergies.
So while we’re genuinely excited about the product, we’ll hold off on judgment until we learn more about its true capabilities and limitations.
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