Taxi NY has launched a new mobile service called Food Content Alerts to help consumers with food allergies, diseases and sensitivity that is ripe for brand integration.

FoodContentAlerts.com provides information and personalized data management for the nearly 70 million consumers in North America who suffer from food-related ailments, including celiac disease and non-celiac gluten sensitivity. Currently the application is free to consumers and the company is looking for brands to integrate into the actual service, as opposed to simply run display advertising.

?[Our strategy is to] help people with food sensitivities manage what they can eat,? said Rich Muhlstock, general manager of content and Food Content Alerts at Taxi NY, New York. ?Twenty percent of the population is affected by food sensitivities and there is no service that helps them to manage, discover and share safe foods from their computer or mobile phone. 

?We launched this service to not only help consumers, but to help brands market to this very passionate and brand-loyal audience,? he said.

Taxi NY is part of the overall Taxi Inc. worldwide network that specializes in strategic planning, advertising, design, content and relationship-marketing services.

Food Content Alerts is free and provides consumers with a variety of tools to help leverage the mobile and online platform and their food allergies and intolerances.

A user community is available in the forums section for consumers to share recipes, ingredient updates and other information.

The online and mobile services are accessible to consumers worldwide.

In My Safe Foods, an area of the mobile and PC Web site, consumers can create lists of personally approved foods and share them with other users.

In My Recipes, consumers can input their own recipes, check the recipes of other users and add ingredients to a shopping list.

My Shopping Lists lets consumers create and manage multiple lists and share their lists with others.

Consumers can also receive product safety alerts or custom information on allergies, celiac disease and other afflictions from sources worldwide.

FoodContentAlerts.com can be accessed from any Web-enabled mobile phone anywhere in the world.

Mr. Muhlstock said that the company is planning application development for several different mobile platforms and SMS alerts are being considered for future development because mobile is a great way to reach consumers.

?It's about brands being able to reach consumers at point of purchase,? Mr. Muhlstock said. ?The research these consumers do doesn't stop when they leave their computer.

?While shopping they are calling manufacturers and analyzing packages,? he said. ?Food Content Alerts on mobile allows them to pull the research they've already done or quickly see what other consumers think of a product.

?Mobile also gives a piece of mind when it comes to sharing shopping lists - knowing that the person doing the shopping will have exactly what is safe.?