Making Life Easier with Allergies: Dad Creates App to Help Families Navigate Food Safely
For families affected by food allergies, everyday life can feel like a minefield. The UK Anaphylaxis Campaign estimates around 2 million people in the UK live with a diagnosed food allergy, yet practical tools and reliable support remain scarce. Grocery labels are often confusing, restaurant menus lack detail, and most digital tools fall short—leaving families anxious and exhausted.
For father Dave Murchison, this reality became personal when his young son was diagnosed with a complex mix of food allergies, including milk, eggs, chicken, and peas. Simple tasks like shopping and cooking turned into hours of research and second-guessing. “Shopping for groceries and cooking meals quickly became a stressful, exhausting process,” he recalls. Determined to make life easier, Murchison decided to build a solution: Mealeez, a mobile and web app designed to take the uncertainty out of allergy management.
At the heart of Mealeez is a database of more than 4,000 ingredients and the relationships between them. This means the app doesn’t just flag obvious allergens—it understands hidden links. For example, a capsicum allergy covers bell peppers and chillies, while a milk allergy also highlights yoghurt, butter, and cheese.
Users set up a personalised allergy profile with a traffic light system: red for unsafe, amber for caution, green for safe. Once complete, they can scan or search over 50,000 supermarket products across major UK retailers to instantly find safe options.
“Most allergy apps stop at scanning labels,” says Murchison. “With Mealeez, once your profile is set up, you can search entire supermarkets at once and immediately see which products are safe. It’s about giving people control and peace of mind.”
Beyond supermarkets, the app scans restaurant menus, highlighting dishes that match a user’s profile so they can make informed choices before ordering. It also interprets INCI ingredient lists in cosmetics and skincare, translating technical terms like arachis hypogaea into the everyday word peanut.
From the start, Murchison designed Mealeez with families in mind. It allows multiple profiles to be combined, making it easy to check products or menus against several people’s dietary restrictions at once. One subscription covers the entire household.
The development process was guided not only by his own experience, but also by input from other families living with allergies. “Caring for someone with allergies has shown me what practical support is missing, and it’s my hope that Mealeez can help others in the same way it has helped my son,” he explains.
One of his proudest milestones came when he tested the restaurant feature at a local takeaway. Within seconds, he discovered his son could safely enjoy a pizza for the first time. “He was so excited to join in with everyone else instead of having something separate made for him,” Murchison says.
By combining ingredient intelligence, supermarket integration, and menu scanning, Mealeez fills gaps left by existing resources. Health professionals have welcomed the innovation, noting the need for accessible tools that consolidate information and offer practical support in daily life.
“I wanted to take away that constant anxiety at the supermarket or when eating out. No parent should have to second-guess every bite,” Murchison says.
The app is now fully launched on Android and the web, with iOS access available through the web app. More details can be found at https://mealeez.co.uk or on Instagram at @mealeez.
With Mealeez, Murchison hopes to give families the freedom to enjoy food together without fear—one meal at a time.