is that GLUTEN FREE? iPhone app

Home run! That’s it…that’s really all I really need to say and I can end this post. But you know me, it’s hard to shut me up, so let me tell you a little about this iPhone app. I have shown this app to a few gluten-free freaks like myself and I received very consistant responses. You see, there are thousands of apps for the iPhone out there and most beg the question, “…should I really spend my money on this app?” Some apps are $.99, in fact most are under $10 and then some go as high as $50+. And I do find myself debating on the cheap ones as well as the more expensive ones…and I often regret that I made the purchase no matter how much it cost me. But nobody, and I mean nobody, asked me how much this app cost them. What they all did say is, “Oh my god, now I MUST get an iPhone!” So think about that. This app is so good, so right on target with what gluten-free people want, that these folks saw justification to spend $199 on the iPhone JUST to have this app! And if I didn’t already have the iPhone, I have no doubt I would have thought the same thing. The actual price of ‘is that Gluten Free? is a steal at $5.99. Even if I take out the excitement of a gluten-free app that helps me, and I just look at the quality, content, and layout…I would have paid much more.
Being a brand new app, I was excited to dig in…and here is what I found:

The first tab is the ‘Categories’ tab. Here you can select foods from what I would consider to be a grocery isle list. The reason I liked this section was that I could pick something like ‘hot dogs’ and a list of 14 Brands and 57 specific products that were verified gluten-free popped right up. It was actually fun to go through each just to see how many times I would say, “I had no idea I could have that!”

The next tab was ‘Brands’. I would count how many brands were listed but I really don’t have that kind of time so lets just say it’s a truck load! But I selected A&W, which showed 4 products that were gluten-free, and then I selcted the original A&W Rootbeer out of that list and came up with specifics on that product. As you can see by the image below, it shows when it was validated, a company statement, and a link to their website. NICE!

Quite honestly that should be enough. Those features work great, give me what I want, and I wouldn’t need anythuing more. But it wasn’t good enough for Midlife Crisis Apps (geez, even the company name is cool!). No, they put in the next two features as well.

The first is a search feature where you have no limits to what you can search for, and it has ‘active’ or ‘live’ search function as you type. This means that if you type in ‘pea’ you will get a pull of everything in the database that contains those letters from PEAs to PEAches to sPEArmint. And the more of the word you type, the narrower the results, very handy!

And finally there is the ‘Ingredients’ tab. This tab contains a huge list of ingredients including the ones where I usually just shrug my shoulders and hope for the best. Did you know that Xyitol, Tyrosine, and Sorbitol-Mannitol are all gluten-free? Oh you did smarty-pants? Well did you know that the last one I mentioned, Sorbitol-Mannitol, can cause IBS symptoms? ‘Is It Gluten Free knows it, and list it all out there in a very easy to read format.
Alright, so by now I am guessing you wish I would have stopped at Home Run, but it really is important to highlight what the folks at Midlife Crisis have done. I hope you give it a shot and let me know what you think too! But don’t be so wordy, that’s annoying.