Our Dietitian Difference
My name is Jen, I’m an Accredited Practicing Dietitian (APD) and have been working in dietetics for 4 years. I completed my Bachelor of Nutrition Science, then followed on to do the Masters of Nutrition & Dietetics which has been my most tough, but rewarding experience yet! I was Foodini’s very first employee and have been with the company since the beginning.
I have worked in a number of settings including aged care, men’s health, bariatric and private practice. All the way through, I had been working with Foodini which has allowed me to shift career directions, and more closely specialise in the space of allergies, intolerances and specialty diets. In my spare time, you’ll likely find me baking bread, taking long walks, enjoying pilates or lots of laughs with my family and friends.
Our team of dietitians are a combination of Accredited Practicing Dietitians (APDs) and Registered Dietitians who work to review the ingredient and allergen information for each menu item on our platform so that you can dine out stress free! Every menu you see, has had a pair of dietitian eyes screen it.
Dietitian Screened:
‘Screened Restaurants’ are restaurants that our dietitian team have reviewed based on all publicly available information, however we have not worked with the restaurant to confirm these details. Where information is not available, our team will use their food composition and food allergen knowledge to create generic recipes with common ingredients, likely to be present or used to create a meal.
Dietitian Screened restaurants have the light brown ‘Menu Matches’ label. As always, if you have a food allergy or intolerance please ensure you flag this to the restaurant before dining or ordering your meal.
Dietitian Verified:
For those with food allergies or intolerances, we recommend viewing “dietitian-verified” venues as these restaurant partners have worked with our dietitian team. This means that our dietitian team has worked with the restaurant staff to confirm ingredient and allergen information (and preparation processes), to highlight meals which are suitable, or not suitable for various dietary needs.
While our team has worked with the restaurant to confirm their menu item’s ingredients lists, diners should always disclose their food allergies and intolerances with venue staff before dining or ordering their meal.
Dietitian Verified restaurants have the green ‘Dietitian Verified’ ribbon and the ‘Foodini Tick’ icon.
FAQ About Onboarding Verified Venues:
We work very closely with our restaurant partners to verify their menu and have it listed on Foodini. This starts by gathering all available menu and ingredient information supplied by the venue, exploring recipes, ingredients lists, allergen matrix and available meal modifications for dietary needs. Then a draft menu is created and the dietitian team will have an onboarding call with head chefs or senior staff to confirm the menu items and discuss in more detail a range of topics such as the venue’s cooking practices, spaces, processes in place to reduce food cross contamination all the way to whether or not dedicated GF fryers or toasters are in place, for GF items. Such features can then be applied to the venue’s profile listing. The venue owner will be invited to review the menu’s listing and confirm the information is correct. At this point, the menu will be LIVE on Foodini!
This very much depends on the size of the menu and the information provided initially to our team from our venue partners. Smaller menus are able to be done quite quickly, longer menus with a long list of menu items take longer. Our partner restaurants provide us with extensive information regarding their menu, ingredient lists, allergen matrix and recipe cards which makes the process quicker and seamless! We then will have an onboarding call and/or site visit to the venue following this, before the menu is finally verified.
All menus on our platform have been screened, or fully verified by the Foodini dietitian team. We are a team of 6 at the moment, with a combination of Accredited Practicing Dietitians & Registered Dietitians.
Our team is here to reflect the reality of a venue’s menu and be transparent in their menu offerings, rather than to ask for changes which may not be feasible. More often than not, our partners happily accommodate menu changes for dietary needs, and work very hard to provide a safe,delicious and enjoyable experience for all diners. They may share these modifications with us and we’re able to highlight substitutions on our platform, or if not we work with our restaurant partners to highlight the potential their menu may have through ingredient substitutions or menu item modifications. The simplest of swaps is often the key to unlocking dietary-friendly meals and reaching more customers.