Guide

Allergy-friendly meal planning for families

When someone in your family has a food allergy, every dinner starts with the same question: is this safe for them? Planning a week of meals means asking it seven times, for every recipe and every ingredient. Ulivo is a family dinner planner that asks it for you, every time, based on the ingredients in each recipe. This page explains exactly what it checks, what it can't know, and why you should still read every label.

Ulivo is a meal planner, not medical advice. It works from recipe ingredients. It can't see food labels, brands, "may contain" warnings or how food is handled in your kitchen. Always check labels, and follow the advice of your doctor or allergist.

Allergies are strict rules

Ulivo has two kinds of food rules. Dislikes are soft: Ulivo avoids them where it can. Allergies are strict: a dinner that contains the allergen is never planned on a night when that person is eating. There's no "close enough" and no trade-off against other preferences.

You add allergies per person, on getulivo.com or by telling your assistant. Ulivo recognizes the nine major US allergens (milk, egg, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soy and sesame), plus gluten, mustard, celery, sulfites, lupin and molluscs. Because allergies are health information, Ulivo asks the account holder for consent before it saves any.

What Ulivo checks

Every recipe in Ulivo, whether from its library or one you saved yourself, is a list of ingredient lines. Ulivo matches each line to a known ingredient and knows which allergens that ingredient carries. So "1/2 cup toasted almonds" is tree nuts, "2 tbsp tahini" is sesame, and "1 cup Greek yogurt" is milk.

When it plans the week, Ulivo checks every dinner against every person eating that night:

• A dinner that contains an allergen isn't planned for that night. For example, chicken and rice with toasted almonds won't be planned on a night your tree-nut-allergic child is eating.
• An ingredient it can't identify counts as unsafe. If Ulivo can't match a line in a recipe, it doesn't assume that line is fine. For anyone with an allergy, that dinner is ruled out on nights they're eating, even if the line is only an optional topping.
• Optional toppings don't get a pass. An allergen anywhere in the recipe, optional toppings and garnishes included, rules the dinner out for that night. A sprinkle of feta is enough to rule a dinner out for a child with a milk allergy. Only foods someone never eats, and diets, can be handled by leaving an optional topping off one plate.
• Swaps are checked too. If you ask for a swap that breaks a rule, Ulivo refuses and says why:

You: Swap Friday for something with almonds.

Assistant: I can't put that on Friday: Maya is allergic to tree nuts. Want me to find something else for Friday that works for everyone?

When a new allergy is found

Allergies sometimes show up after a plan is made. If you add a new allergy to someone's profile, Ulivo rechecks the plan you already have. Any night that's no longer safe is flagged, and the plan can't be confirmed until those nights are swapped. You don't have to remember which dinners had peanuts in them.

When there's no safe plan

Sometimes the rules don't leave room. A household with several allergies, a tight time limit on busy nights and a small budget may simply not have a dinner that fits all of it. When that happens, Ulivo tells you which rule is in the way instead of quietly relaxing one. It never swaps in a "nearly safe" dinner.

What Ulivo can't know

Ingredient-based checking is a strong first filter, but it has limits. Ulivo can't know:

• Brand-specific ingredients. Stock cubes, sauces, spice blends and breads can contain allergens that a plain recipe line doesn't show. Read the label of the product you actually buy.
• "May contain" and shared-facility warnings. These are on packaging, not in recipes.
• Cross-contact in your kitchen. Shared cutting boards, toasters, fryers and serving spoons are up to you.
• Changes to products. Manufacturers change recipes. A label you checked last year may be different now.

That's why we say it plainly on every page about allergies: Ulivo helps you plan around allergies, and you still check labels.

Tips for allergy-friendly weeks

• Add every allergy, even mild ones. Ulivo only plans around rules it knows.
• Use "foods they never eat" for strict avoidances that aren't allergies. They're checked just as strictly.
• Mark who's eating each night. Ulivo plans each night around the people at the table. If your allergic child is away, that night can include a dinner they couldn't have.
• Keep your own recipes in Ulivo. Recipes you save are checked the same way as the library's, line by line.
• Review the shopping list. It's built from the plan, so it shouldn't include the allergen, but the label check at the store is still yours.

Allergy-friendly planning often overlaps with diets. If someone in your house avoids gluten, see the gluten-free family meal plan guide.