FAQ
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THIS IS IMPORTANT
Nothing on this Service is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment, or to be a substitute for services from a qualified health care provider to meet your and your family's individual health, diet and nutritional needs. You should not ignore or fail to seek medical advice because of content available on the Service, including any forum. For specific information and counsel, you should consult your personal physician prior to taking any action.
Food Content Alerts 101
1. What is Food Content Alerts?
Food Content Alerts is a free website and mobile application to help individuals with food sensitivities (allergies or intolerances) manage their life. The site helps organize a world of fragmented information - facilitating product research, finding recipes, developing shopping lists and more. It gives you on-the-go access to all of this information and allows you to share it with family and friends. It's been created for people with food sensitivities or parents of children that suffer from them - giving you the answers you need wherever you are.
Setting up your food profiles
Profiles can be set up to be completely personal to your needs. To begin, go to MY PROFILE and FOOD PROFILES. In the add/edit profile box type a name, birthday and gender. Then search for one sensitivity at a time and click ADD. And repeat for each sensitivity you need to add. You can add as many sensitivities as needed. When you're finished click SAVE. If you don't see an appropriate sensitivity, click the request link to add more. You will be alerted when the sensitivity has been added to the menu. You can then add more people or if you have already added someone, click on the pencil next to their name to edit their profile.
Homepage Settings
You can choose what content you want to appear on your home page and where you want it. To set up your home page go to MY PROFILE and HOMEPAGE SETTINGS. You may uncheck any of the default modules you're not interested in. You may also create any module you want using an RSS feed. If you'd like to change the position of the modules, go to your home page and drag and drop the modules wherever you'd like them.
2. My Safe Foods Tool
My Safe Foods allows you to create completely personal lists of foods based on your specific food sensitivities, and customize a different list for every person in your family. You can easily add your own products and tag them with the right sensitivities to match your needs. You can also search products added by others in the community with similar sensitivities, and add them to your list. Products can be easily added to your shopping list or emailed and shared with friends, family.
Creating your Safe Food list
There are several ways to create your list - how you choose is up to you. Before FCA you most likely discovered foods from your own research or trusted friends. FCA serves as a way to store that information for you. We encourage everyone to take the foods you know are safe for your food sensitivities and begin entering them by clicking ADD A PRODUCT.
The second method is to go to the community list and search the list based on your profile and what you might be interested in. When you find a food you deem to be safe, double check to make sure it is safe for you and click ADD TO MY SAFE FOODS.
Adding a Safe Food
Safe foods are added by going to the SAFE FOODS tab and then ADD A PRODUCT. Fill in as much information as you have (the more the better - to help people with like sensitivities). Before you click ADD PRODUCT, make sure to check off whom it's safe for - then click ADD PRODUCT. If you know other sensitivities the product is safe for, you can add them under Safe Sensitivities and then add the product.
Editing Products
Products can be edited from the My Safe Foods list, the Community list, or when looking at product detail - by simply clicking on the pencil to the right of the listing. You are allowed to edit any product you'd like - to include more information or change existing information like adding or deleting a sensitivity. When you're finished, decide if you want to save your changes to the community and then click SAVE CHANGES.
Red Flag in your Safe Foods
This means someone in the community changed the product listing. It could be they added a comment or added/deleted a sensitivity. You can review the change in your listing by clicking on the product name. You can choose to accept the change or leave it as you originally entered it. Know one can change a listing in your database but you.
My Recipes Tool
My Recipes is like a personal recipe box. Once you've entered your recipes, ingredients can easily be added to a shopping list or shared with friends and family. The advanced search tool lets you search recipes from the entire community - you can sort by specific food sensitivities or see all recipes in any particular category. The recipe editor allows you to customize any recipe you find and add it to your own recipe box.
Creating your Recipe list
There are two ways to create your list or recipes. The first is to take the recipes you already know are safe and entering them into FCA by clicking ADD A RECIPE (see below). This will allow you to easily share with family, friends and other people dealing with like sensitivities. The second is to go to the community recipes and search the list based on your profile and what you might be interested in. When you find a recipe you deem to be safe, double check to make sure it is safe for you and click ADD TO MY RECIPES.
Adding a Recipe
Recipes are added by going to the RECIPES tab and then ADD A RECIPES. Fill in as much information as you have. Since the ingredients determine if a recipe is safe, each ingredient needs to be included in your SAFE FOODS prior to saving a recipe. When adding ingredients, first start typing the ingredient name and check to see if the ingredient is already saved. If it appears, click ADD and enter the amount needed for the recipe. If the ingredient doesn’t appear, click ADD PRODUCT, and follow the directions for adding a SAFE FOOD. Once you add the new ingredient, it will appear in your ingredient list – then add the amount needed for the recipe. Once you’ve entered all your information, click ADD RECIPE at the bottom of the page. The recipe will now appear in your RECIPES.
Modifying Recipes
FCA allows users to modify recipes to meet specific sensitivity or health concerns. To modify a recipe first open the recipe you want to modify. Then click on the COPY icon located to the right of the recipe name. Make whatever changes you would like and click SAVE CHANGES. The recipe will be saved with the same name, noting it’s been modified by you – your screen name will appear next to the recipe.
Adding Ingredients to a Shopping List
To quickly add any ingredients to a shopping list open the recipe you’re looking to make. Put a check next to the ingredients you need and using the ADD TO SHOPPING LIST drop down menu, select a list and click ADD.
Sharing a Recipe
Easily share recipes via email – just click on the letter icon above the lists and fill out the form.
4. My Shopping Lists Tool
My Shopping List lets you create and manage as many shopping lists as you like and of course allows you to e-mail any list to friends or family. You also can add foods from the My Safe Foods or specific ingredients from your recipes to any shopping list.
Creating a shopping list
Go to SHOPPING LISTS from the main tab, and then click the CREATE SHOPPING LISTS tab. Simply enter a name and click CREATE SHOPPING LIST. Once the list is created you can go to SAFE FOODS and begin to enter products. Or you can create a shopping list from MY SAFE FOODS by using the ADD TO SHOPPING LIST drop down menu on the top or bottom of every page and selecting CREATE A SHOPPING LIST.
Adding foods to a shopping list
Review the safe foods you want to include in a shopping list and add them by clicking on the check box next to the product on the main list and then using the ADD TO SHOPPING LIST drop down menu on the top or bottom of every page. You can also add products to shopping lists by reviewing the product detail page and using the ADD TO SHOPPING LIST drop down menu in the SAFE FOR box. In both cases select a list and click ADD.
Editing a shopping list
You can easily delete products from a list or change the quantity by simply clicking on the pencil next to the list. Clicking on the X after the product will delete it. To change the quantity, just change the number in the amount column.
Sharing a shopping list
Easily share lists via email – just click on the letter icon above the lists and fill out the form.
5. Community Forums
Our forums give you a place to speak, share ideas, and get advice from people living with similar sensitivities.
How can I participate in the Forums?
From the COMMUNITY FORUM page, click on a forum topic you’re interested in to view topics currently open. You can than review and reply to any topic or post a new topic for other members to respond to.
How do I edit or delete a post?
Unless you’re a forum moderator, you can only post a follow-up message. If you would like a post deleted, please email care@foodcontentalerts.com.
Can I become a moderator?
If you’re interested in leading forum topics, please email us at care@foodcontentalerts.com with a little information about the .
6. News Modules
News Modules offer up to date information on topics like: FDA Safety Alerts, Food Allergy News, Celiac News, and Discovery Alerts from the Food Content Alerts community. You can add these modules to your home page to make sure you always have the most important and most relevant information.
7. Mobile Access
Many features of our site have been specially designed to be available to anyone with a web-enabled phone. These features include: check to see if a product is on your safe foods list; recall a recipe or search for a new one from the community list; access shopping lists; and see the latest alerts from the FDA. Mobile access to FCA is available to anyone with a web-enabled mobile phone. To access the mobile site, open your mobile web browser and enter our website address - www.foodcontentalerts.com. The site will automatically conform for optimal viewing on your phone.
8. Facebook Connect
Food Content Alerts makes it easy to share with friends and family using your existing Facebook account. To link your account, go to MY PROILE and click on PERSONAL INFORMATION. Click on the CONNECT WITH FACEBOOK link to get started. Personal information from FCA will never be shared. And FCA does not have access to your Facebook account.
