Allergy Risk Areas
There are five main areas where a restaurant or cafe serving allergic customers can get into trouble:
Menu and recipe design
Front of House
Ordering, labelling and storing ingredients
Preparation and cooking of the food
Cleaning and storage of implements
In the book they are dealt with in turn. In each case
we give a list of DO’s and DON’Ts. These can be photocopied,
blown up and stuck on the wall of the kitchen, office or service area
as a
reminder to all staff of the possible hazards involved in feeding allergic
customers and how to deal with them. The following is a sample from the
menu & recipe design section.
Menu Do’s
- Always have an Allergy Notice at the head of every menu telling customers that you are aware of their problems and would like them to discuss their needs with you. If possible specify the allergenic ingredient of any dish in the description of that dish.
- If you cannot specify the ingredients of each dish include a prominent message to encourage allergic customers to discuss their needs with the waiting staff.
- Remember to update the allergy content of your menu when you change it.
- Check every batch of bought in ready made dishes to ensure the ingredients have not changed. If they have alert staff and customers.
Menu Don’ts
- Do not specify the allergic ingredients in some dishes but not in others - it just causes confusion.
- Do not use ‘allergy free’ logos - they only cause confusion
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