TreatOut serves up a dining out solution for the food intolerant

by Startacus Admin

“Tell us the foods you can’t eat, and we’ll show you dishes you can eat” is a simple but effective promise from new startup TreatOut, a dish discovery app that is set to make it easy for anyone with food allergies and food intolerances to eat out. Hungry to find out more? Then read on...

Currently at soft launch stage, we are liking the sound of TreatOut a dish discovery app that aims to offer menu transparency to anyone with food allergies and food intolerances. The app works by matching dishes to individual food profiles so that TreatOut diners can see exactly which dishes they can eat out, wherever they are - and most importantly we think, before they even visit the restaurant itself.

The current problem is that anyone with dietary concerns, and there are many, can find it incredibly difficult to confidently eat out - and importantly, know exactly what's on the plate they are eating.

Frustrated by her inability to dine out with multiple food intolerances, co-founder, Nathalie Christmann-Cooper was inspired into building a solution to make eating out possible for everyone. A freelance web designer at the time, she enlisted two long standing friends Tracey Rowe and Deborah Terry to help her. Together, the trio are set on making sure that TreatOut will deliver a solution that will totally transform menu delivery in the foodservice sector.

With the concept proven, they’ve started the process of collecting menu data and are working with their founding partner sites to make this process scalable. 

“Without the restaurants we have nothing. We are not data scraping. The information has got to come from the kitchen so that our diners who are using the app know that it’s good data they’re accessing. Anything less is simply not good enough.”  - explained Nathalie.

Transparency and knowledge of ingredients included on a restaurant's menu and in individual dishes can be sketchy, and an often embarrassing process to work out, when at the restaurant itself.

Samantha Jones - IBS sufferer and founder of the Gut Health Empire explains what using TreatOut would mean to her -

“Once upon a time, dining out meant freedom, relaxation and enjoyment and now, it’s a tale of back and forth emails in advance or confused conversations with restaurants. TreatOut is set to be one of those apps that once you use it, you’ll wonder how you ever got by without it.”

Of course the biggest initial challenge that TreatOut may face could be getting enough individual restaurants to complete all the food menu data that would make the App workable - and this is where working with more national chains, would, one would assume, come in very handy.

Encouraging a large percentage of the potential ‘dining-out’ population to actually take that leap and eat out, must be something that any growing and established restaurant chain must be hungry to take advantage of - and this is where as TreatOut further grows, scales and opens up to a more nationwide UK launch, we’d imagine the app would create the largest win-win for both end-users and the restaurants themselves - new and repeat footfall being the key here!

We reckon that if anything, the early encouragement they have received to date speak volumes for the app's potential, with accolades and milestones coming right from its initial launch back at the later part of 2015, when Nathalie was selected for the the Mums and Dads Startup programme at Good Campus. She was then invited to pitch at Seed & Chips Global Food Expo, Milan, launching the concept at the Restaurant Tech Live Show in September last year, and then the following month, October 2016, was a finalist at the Appster awards for Most Influential Startup and Most Innovative App.

Finally, Nathalie explains it to us on a plate - “We’re not just launching an app, we are creating a business with huge, global potential. We’re introducing a product to the foodservice industry which at present just doesn’t exist. It’s a better future for all diners. The revolution is coming, we can see a day when everyone will be able to #TreatOutToEatOut”.

We look forward to keeping up to date with the team's journey over the next few months and expect, post their current soft launch and beta test in Sevenoaks, for Brighton to be next on the map - with a crowdfunding campaign pencilled in for later on in the year.

Best of luck from team Startacus. Keep up to date with the TreatOut journey and follow them on Twitter.

• #treatout
• #treatout app
• #food-tech
• #food tech
• #dish discovery
• #restaurants
• #food allergies
• #food intolerances
• #food service industry
• #uk
• #nathalie christmann-cooper

Published on: 3rd May 2017