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How Foodini is Making Dining Safer for People with Dietary Needs
Timo Kugler from Foodini explains how AI and a team of dietitians help 33% of the population with dietary restrictions find safe restaurants and navigate menus with confidence.
About the guest
Timo Kugler
Co-Founder, Foodini
Timo Kugler is a serial founder who launched his first business event marketing company while still in school in Munich, before joining MTV Europe to scale from 9 to 90 staff across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. He has since founded and advised multiple tech businesses across Europe and Australia, including a mobile development company and work within corporate media. He met his Foodini co-founder Dylan McDonald through the Founder Institute program, joining initially as an adviser and investor before becoming a co-founder. Foodini has been operating in Australia for two and a half years and recently expanded to the US.
Episode overview
Timo Kugler joins Steve Grace to explain why 33% of the global population struggle to eat out safely, and how Foodini is building the infrastructure to fix that for consumers and the hospitality industry at the same time. The episode covers the two-sided platform model, the role of AI and dietitians in menu analysis, the liability crisis hiding in plain sight in restaurants, and why COVID gave Foodini an unexpected boost.
33% of people have dietary needs that are not being served
Timo’s pitch is built on a consistent global statistic: approximately a third of all people make food choices based on an allergy, preference, lifestyle diet, or cultural diet. That is 2.7 billion people. His household alone has two children with food allergies and a vegetarian wife, making finding a restaurant a multi-platform juggling act. His co-founder Dylan is a Celiac. The problem is not niche: it is so common that most restaurants simply do not have the tools to handle it properly, not from lack of intent but lack of mechanics.
“There’s probably not a person in the world who hasn’t been at a table where that conversation about dietary needs takes up the first 15 minutes before anyone looks at the menu.”
Steve Grace on the universality of the problem 04:00
A two-sided platform: consumers and restaurants
Foodini is free for consumers. Users download the app, build a profile with up to 50 dietary choices, preferences, or allergens, and the app shows nearby restaurants whose menus match that profile. Green means order as is. A second tier shows dishes that can be modified. A third shows dishes to avoid. For restaurants, Foodini provides a backend portal. Onboarding takes about 20 minutes for a standard menu. The platform then automatically reads and updates menus as restaurants make changes, flagging anything below a 99.2% certainty threshold to the dietitian team for review.
AI trained by dietitians, not instead of them
The technical architecture is one of the more interesting elements of this episode. Foodini built its own AI and GPT models trained by a dedicated team of dietitians. The dietitians set the logic and train the system. The AI handles scale. This combination allows Foodini to analyse menus at the ingredient level across thousands of restaurants, a task that would be impossible with a purely human team. The 99.2% certainty threshold is a deliberate conservatism: the system defaults to worst-case scenarios and escalates anything uncertain to human review.
“53% of allergy incidents that happen in a restaurant happen after the wait staff has been informed of the allergy.”
Timo Kugler citing a US restaurant safety study 16:00
The liability angle and the US expansion
Timo’s co-founder Dylan is a lawyer, and Foodini had liability disclaimers built before it had wireframes. The company frames itself not as a zero-risk environment but as the highest-standard risk mitigation available. More than half of restaurant allergy incidents in the US occur after the wait staff has been told about the allergy, a breakdown in internal communication rather than customer disclosure. Insurance companies are running the numbers on rising allergy prevalence and starting to care deeply about platforms that reduce liability exposure.
Key takeaways
Chapters
00:00Meet Timo Kugler and the Foodini story02:16Tackling dietary challenges with Foodini04:33From MTV to startups: Timo’s career journey07:07How Foodini makes dining safer for everyone09:34AI and dietitians: the brains behind Foodini11:52Boosting restaurant menus and revenue15:10Foodini’s expansion to the US market19:34Fundraising and scaling: what’s next for Foodini
Mentioned in this episode
Frequently asked questions
What is Foodini and how does it work?
Foodini is a two-sided platform connecting people with dietary needs to restaurants that can safely accommodate them. Consumers download the free app, build a profile of up to 50 dietary choices or allergens, and see restaurants nearby with matching menus. Dishes are shown in three tiers: safe to order as is, can be modified, and should be avoided. Restaurants onboard via a backend portal and their menus are analysed by Foodini’s AI system, trained by a team of dietitians.
How does Foodini handle food allergy safety?
Foodini uses proprietary AI and large language models trained by a dedicated dietitian team to analyse menus at the ingredient level. The system operates at a 99.2% certainty threshold: anything below is escalated to human dietitian review. The platform defaults to worst-case interpretations and does not create a zero-risk environment, but it represents the highest standard of risk mitigation currently available to consumers and restaurants.
How many people have dietary restrictions globally?
Consistently across global studies, approximately 33% of the population, around 2.7 billion people, make food choices based on an allergy, preference, lifestyle diet, or cultural diet. The prevalence is rising, particularly among younger demographics, driven by both genuine increases in allergen sensitivity and earlier diagnostic testing that identifies conditions that previously went undetected.
Where is Foodini available?
Foodini is available in Australia, where it has been operating for two and a half years, and has recently expanded to the US market. The consumer app is free and available on both the App Store and Google Play. Restaurant partners are onboarded via a separate backend portal and menu management system.
What is the liability risk for restaurants around food allergies?
A US study found that 53% of restaurant allergy incidents occur after the wait staff has already been informed of the allergy. This points to a systemic breakdown in internal communication between front of house and kitchen. Foodini’s co-founder is a lawyer and the platform was built with liability disclaimers before wireframes. Insurance companies working with restaurant clients are increasingly interested in risk-mitigation technology as allergy prevalence rises.
Topics discussed
Full transcript
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Show full transcript (40 minutes, 5 sections)
00:00 Meet Timo and the Foodini mission
Steve Grace introduced Timo Kugler as a co-founder building something with a genuine health benefit rather than just another SaaS business. Timo described Foodini as a platform targeting restaurants and hospitality operators alongside people with dietary needs, to give them an easier way to navigate dining. He noted that 33% of the global population, approximately 2.7 billion people, make food choices based on an allergy, preference, lifestyle diet, or cultural diet. His own household has two children with allergies and a vegetarian wife.
04:33 Timo’s career: from Munich to Sydney via MTV
Timo started his first business as a school student in Munich, running event marketing for schools across Germany with two friends. After selling the business he joined MTV Europe to scale the German, Austrian, and Swiss launch from 9 staff to 90 in six months, with 13 dogs in the office. He later joined a tech startup in Munich, pivoted it to mobile and got it acquired, then moved through corporate media in Sydney before founding his own mobile development company and eventually meeting Dylan McDonald through the Founder Institute program.
07:07 How the platform works for consumers
Consumers download the free Foodini app, build a dietary profile from over 50 choices including allergens, preferences, lifestyle diets, and cultural diets, and the app shows nearby restaurants with menus that match. The display is organised into three tiers: dishes that can be ordered as is (shown in green), dishes that can be modified, and dishes to avoid. The profile can be updated at any time, for example adjusting a summer diet or seasonal training regimen. The app also works when travelling, showing matching options in new cities.
09:34 AI and dietitians: how menu analysis works
Foodini built proprietary AI and GPT models over the past year and a half, trained by a dedicated in-house dietitian team. The dietitians set the logic and train the AI on ingredient-level analysis. Restaurant onboarding takes approximately 20 minutes for a standard menu. When menus change, restaurants upload a new menu and the AI reads the changes, automatically updating the platform. Anything below a 99.2% certainty threshold is flagged to human dietitian review. The system defaults to worst-case scenarios and escalates edge cases.
15:10 US expansion and the liability angle
Foodini expanded to the US market with a third co-founder who has deep local market experience. The liability angle is more acute in the US but exists in Australia too. Foodini’s co-founder Dylan is a lawyer, and the platform had liability disclaimers before wireframes were built. A US study found 53% of restaurant allergy incidents happen after wait staff have been informed of the allergy. Insurance companies are running models on rising allergy prevalence and are engaged with Foodini as a risk-mitigation tool.
About the host
Steve Grace is the CEO and co-founder of The Nudge Group, a talent and advisory firm working with Australia’s fastest-growing tech and professional services companies. He has spent two decades recruiting and advising executive teams. Give It A Nudge is where he shares unfiltered conversations with founders, operators, and investors building something worth talking about. LinkedIn
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