Hungry Middle Schoolers Create Prize-Winning Allergy App

By Betsy Klein

When 13-year-old Samantha Hinton is unsure of the ingredients in a snack, she just doesn’t eat it.

That’s because Samantha is among the growing population of food allergy sufferers in the United States, and she fears a bite containing peanuts could kill her.

“I know it’s deadly,” she told ABC News. “And the side effects are just too scary.”

But a team of eighth-graders at her New Hampshire school created a smartphone app that could make navigating the cafeteria a whole lot easier. The Hampstead Academy students took home the grand prize at Verizon’s App Challenge with their idea for “Chow Checker,” an app that identifies food allergens.

They submitted the video pitch last school year and got to work with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab to turn it into a reality. It is now available for download in Google Play.

Read the full article here.