Site for finding gluten free foods

tzeskimo · Joined: 10 May 2007 Posts: 5

I just finished a site I've been working on to make finding gluten free foods and recipes a little easier. The address is www.sprued.com. It's a little rough around the edges (it's only been complete for a few days), but I would love it if a few people could check it out and give me any suggestions they have.

I was diagnosed with celiac sprue last December, and since then have found it incredibly frustrating figuring out which foods are safe to eat. Each time I encounter a food with a mystery ingredient, I have to go through this really time consuming process searching through forums and manufacturer websites. Most of the time the information I'm looking for is out there, it's just dispersed across the far corners of the internet.

Luckily, I'm a nerdy programmer, so I decided to take my fate into my own hands and create a solution. Sprued is the result. It contains a database of foods (all submitted by users) that's easily searchable. Users can vote on whether or not they consider a food to be gluten free, as well as add links to more information (like the manufacturers gluten-free list or policy) and emails. Since so many celiacs end up making foods from scratch, there's also a recipe database.

In the future, I'm hoping to add a section that allows you to find restaurants in your area that are celiac friendly (kind of like www.yelp.com but on a smaller scale). But first, I want to see if people are interested in the site.

Anyway, let me know what you think. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Ardagarda · Joined: 09 May 2006 Posts: 29

I think this site is great! I am excited about anything that helps me to find more stuff to eat. Plus, as we all do our own research, we can contribute. It's a really good idea.

mchess · Joined: 21 Nov 2004 Posts: 102 Location: Oklahoma

I really like this site. Thanks for creating it. I added it to my favorites. Are you going to be adding more foods into the catergories? Some of them are empty.
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The Edifying Conscience · Joined: 29 Aug 2005 Posts: 2424

First off, welcome to the forum.

Despite the fact that you're a 'nerdy programmer,' I'm certain it took some time to create your site. I think it looks great and I appreciate the time it took you to create it.

It's always been my belief that the only way to determine if a product is safe is to 1)use products from companies that will clearly list gluten containing ingredients on the label or 2) to contact a manufacturer to determine if a product is safe or not. As far as I'm concerned there aren't any other ways to get accurate and/or up-to-date information.

Like computers, lists of gluten-free foods are outdated as soon as they are compiled. Companies regularly change formulas without notifying the public and as a result the lists aren't accurate.

As for 'voting' on whether or not a product is gluten free. Well, I'm not going to go there.

tzeskimo · Joined: 10 May 2007 Posts: 5

Thanks so much for the support!

Yep, I am planning on adding a lot more foods to the database. I'm also hoping that other users will contribute research as well.

However, before I submit new foods, I'm going to significantly rework how the site presents food research. Currently, the site allows users to "vote" on whether or not a food contains gluten. Since releasing the site, I've decided this is not particularly useful, since it is a completely unsubstantiated opinion.

Instead, I'm going to emphasize the research people have submitted. Each piece of research will have a source (ideally a weblink), allowing people to better judge (and hopefully confirm) the trustworthiness of the information.

Until I'm done with this redesign, I'm not going to update the database, since I'll have to eventually adjust all the entries to fit the new format. My partner (and roommate) is also finishing up on the final site design (its current look is just temporary). When he's done, sprued will look much, much better. Hopefully these changes will be ready in the next few weeks. I'll do a follow up post to let everyone know when they go live.

tzeskimo · Joined: 10 May 2007 Posts: 5

Edifying Conscience,

I think we were posting at the same time, so I wanted to do a quick follow up to your points.

I whole heartedly agree that the only guaranteed way to figure out if a food is gluten free is to read a label and look at a manufacturers gluten free list. However, I think there's an important role for Sprued to play in this process.

First, it can give you a good starting place when looking for particular types of food. For example, if you're searching for gluten free wasabi paste or soy sauce, it can help you figure out which brands to keep an eye out for and which brands to avoid.

Second, I often find gluten free lists and policies hard to find on manufacturer's websites. Recently, someone told me coke was not gluten free because of the carmel coloring. To figure out if they were right, I went through the followin procedure:

1) I googled "coca-cola gluten free". This brought up a bunch of forum threads and random web pages where people said that coke was safe for celiacs. Though this was good to hear, these people were complete strangers, and since my health was on the line, I continued my search.

2) I went directly to Coca-cola's website. Actually, I went to one of their several websites. Eventually, after about fifteen minutes and moving from their product website to the corporate website, I found a question and answer page which provided a gluten free list.

Imagine the following scenario on sprued:

1) Type in coke.
2) click on the coke product page
3) follow the user submitted link to the Coca-cola website which lists Coke as gluten free.

The latter process seems much easier. It remains to be seen if people will actually use Sprued in this way, but that's my vision.

I think you're right about gluten free lists quickly getting out of date. However, I'm hoping that a food database maintained by the celiac community will have a much better chance of keeping up with ingredient changes than a single, centrally maintained list. The whole intention of sprued is that its users submit information. I simply don't have the time or knowledge to maintain the database on my own.

I also am not intending Sprued to serve as a gluten-free list in the traditional sense. With user submitted content, it's impossible to verify the accuracy of the information, so Sprued can't really say a food is definitely gluten free. Instead, I'm hoping it will serve as a collection point for user research. This will allow people to quickly surmise the general opinion about a food's gluten free status. It will also allow them to quickly do their own research by following user submitted links. You can think of it as a food search engine, which, because it is specialized, should be better than a general purpose search engine like google for finding out the gluten content of foods.

As far as the votes, per my previous post, I've decided to scrap that feature. I don't think its useful, and I've received similar feedback from another forum. Hopefully my redesign will be better. It's also a work in progress, so I would greatly appreciate any suggestions for ways of cataloging information about the gluten content of foods that people would find helpful and trustworthy.

Finally, keep in mind there are other useful components of sprued, like the recipe section. It only has a few foods at the moment, but I'm planning on adding a lot more after my redesign, and I'm hoping other people will contribute as well.

Ok, I guess that wasn't so quick. I apologize for being so long winded...I'm very passionate about this. I know sprued will be useful for me, but I also want to figure out what works best for other people, so keep the feedback coming.

cruelshoes · Joined: 23 Sep 2005 Posts: 2506 Location: Washington State

Your site reminds me of http://gfscan.com/. Seems like you are both working on similar ideas.

I am like TEC in that I will not use lists because they are out of date before the ink is dry (virtual ink in the case of your site Smile

). I also would have no confidence in people voting on whether or not an item is GF. There are plenty of sloppy celiacs out there that don't do nearly enough homework before eating things. Also, formulations change all the time, so keeping something like this up to date seems like a daunting task.

One thing that would be helpful to a new caliac is a list of who owns whom. It is a real time saver to figure out which smaller brands fall under celiac friendly parent companies like General Mills, Kraft or Hormel. I know I spent a lot of time when I was first diagnosed calling companies that were owned by the biggies when I really didn't need to because they had the same labeling practices as the parent company.
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aklap · Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 8506 Location: WI, USA

tzeskimo · Joined: 10 May 2007 Posts: 5

Thanks for the link. It does seem like we're doing something similar, though I would like the food database to only be a section of the site. Recipes are another key component of the site, and I'd also like to add a searchable map for finding gluten friendly restaurants and grocery stores.

Like I said earlier, I think you're right about the votes. Those will be removed in the next release (sometime in the next few weeks). The new version of the site will emphasize food research, such as the links aklap provided. I'm still trying to figure out how to best collect and present this research.

Daughter_of_Light · Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 1:18 pm Post subject:

wow! This is great. I FOUND GLUTEN FREE CREAM SODA!!!!! YES!!! Smile

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glorya · Joined: 05 Dec 2006 Posts: 59 Location: Nevada

Please tell me the brand? Thank you gloria Very Happy

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I am a celiac, and am glutenfree, and I enjoy the forum, I love reading new sites, all the time. I would love have comments also.Forgive
me for asking alot of questions? You are all very helpful. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

Siobhan · Joined: 15 Mar 2007 Posts: 61 Location: Ireland

tzeskimo

Thanks, its a very nice site, I wish I could get some of those products here in Ireland.

Keep up the good work Very Happy

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glorya · Joined: 05 Dec 2006 Posts: 59 Location: Nevada

That is a big help, their is alot for Celiac's to eat! Lets all be greatfull.
I know I am. Thank you again for the list. Laughing

_________________
I am a celiac, and am glutenfree, and I enjoy the forum, I love reading new sites, all the time. I would love have comments also.Forgive
me for asking alot of questions? You are all very helpful. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.