By Gayle Rigione, CEO and Co-Founder, Allergy Force
I heard Betsy Craig of MenuTrinfo speak at a bloggers conference in 2018. I was riveted by her story of facing down a debilitating, most often life-ending, auto-immune disease – scleroderma – and beating it, all while launching a company. To say I was inspired by her journey is an understatement.
I held onto something Betsy shared, “We all have the capacity to persevere and meet adversity head on — whether it’s food allergies, celiac disease, scleroderma, unemployment, or something else.” This sentiment motivated me to keep moving through some tough times as we built out our company, Allergy Force.
Background Behind Allergy Force
My family never let food allergies stop us from living life full on, though we blundered about parenting our son with food allergies in the days before Google was a ‘thing’, before Facebook, before OIT choices, and the LEAP Study findings.
During a family trip in 2016 we were on our way to a restaurant and rummaged through our backpack for the food allergy translation we often used. After finding this tattered, almost illegible resource, we looked at each other, frustrated. There had to be another way.
Our ‘ah-ha’ came when we asked ourselves, why not use technology to easily communicate our food allergy needs and troubleshoot emergencies? We kept spinning from there, cataloguing allergic life pain points that blocked us, and dreaming up tech solutions. Our app came first and the website followed.
The inspiration behind our app was a Swiss army knife: multiple tools, diverse functionality, all in a single package at your fingertips when you need to solve a problem. The app is currently being updated and will relaunch soon. Our website is a hub of actionable information and encouragement for visitors who want to know how to live fully and freely with food allergies.
Since Day 1 it’s been our mission to lighten the burden of allergic life so people with food allergies can live with more confidence and less fear. Much of the functionality of our app and all of the downloadable resources on our website are free, our gift to the food allergy community.
Recent Wake-up Calls
Our son is now an adult, living his life, but I still worry about all the things I can’t control. From carrying epinephrine and reading food labels, to advocating at restaurants and traveling for business, living with food allergies makes you hyper aware of the world around you and, as a mom, it was my job for many years to do this for him.
A while ago he questioned if he was still allergic since it had been so long since he’d had a reaction. Unfortunately, he had a reaction surprise on Christmas Eve to a mystery trigger which was especially disheartening after we’d read every label on the food not once, but multiple times. We trusted the labels.
Shortly after that, our community suffered yet another tragic loss, a young dancer, Órla Baxendale. Her loss devastated me. She’d bought cookies at our go-to local retailer, trusting the food label, but the label was inaccurate and failed to disclose peanuts. Despite using her epinephrine, Órla died. All because she trusted the label.
In May of 2025, Timmy Howard, just home after graduating from University of Rhode Island, ate a snack bar that had cross contact with peanuts. Despite using his epinephrine, Timmy died. All because he trusted the label.
I can’t help but think either of these circumstances could have happened to my peanut allergic son and my heart breaks for their families.
Why Enough Is Enough
I didn’t have to think twice to say ‘Yes!’ when MenuTrinfo invited me to join their Allergy Advisory Council to help their Certified Free From (CFF) program gain traction earlier this year. I am humbled to serve beside long-time community leaders – many of whom have suffered unthinkable losses because of food allergies – to push for greater transparency in food labeling,
I believe that if more food manufacturers were CFF-certified, Orla and Timmy (and countless others) might still be with us, my label reading son wouldn’t have to suffer random allergic reactions, and I wouldn’t stress quite as much over being powerless to keep him safe. I still find it inconceivable that a bite of food, meant to nourish, can kill.
People die because they trust food labels. They are not just statistics. They are beloved sons, daughters, grandmas, moms, dads, sisters, brothers – all with big, beautiful lives to live. Why does it always take tragedy to drive change?
While CFF certification won’t bring back those we’ve lost, I believe it will help prevent future tragedies from inaccurate or ambiguous food labeling. I can’t wait for the day when we find many more products on grocery shelves with the CFF seal and the confidence we’ll feel buying those products and knowing we can trust those labels.
—–
Allergy parent Gayle Rigione is the CEO and co-founder of Allergy Force, dedicated to helping people with food allergies live full, safe lives with food allergies through education and technology. Visit AllergyForce.com.
