People with allergies or celiac disease are constantly worried about eating foods with gluten, which can make vacations and visiting restaurants a source of stress.
To minimize studying the ingredients and asking many questions, there is now a device to test food. The Nima sensor will analyze a small portion of food and determine if there is a presence of gluten, sometimes even below 20 parts per million, which is the amount deemed safe for people with celiac disease by the FDA.
This way, the use of the Nima device should be used with caution but is still an interesting tool for testing most foods (with some exceptions, like fermented gluten protein). It is very sensitive and with the help of its app, can even identify if the amount of gluten is low or high.
It is important to note that a high sensitivity should be taken with care, as small traces of gluten can be safe and the result in the device might make the user avoid a dish unnecessarily. It will measure a small portion of food, sometimes another part of the plate that might contain gluten, which will not be tested. So studying the ingredient cannot represent the whole.
Still, when used according to instructions, it is a great use of technology to start conversations and solve questions when away from home. Although it might not replace asking questions for good, it will bring into consciousness, a sense of safety and the risks that sometimes otherwise, would not be known.
About the Author: MSci Maísa Melo is a Pharmacist and a current PhD student in cosmetic technology, from São Paulo, Brazil. She has earned her master’s degree from the University of São Paulo and has been involved with the development, stability, safety and efficacy of cosmetics since 2013. She has specialized in the clinical efficacy of cosmetics by biophysical and skin imaging techniques as well as the use of alternative models to animal testing. Her research work has been published in several scientific journals and book chapters from the field.
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