Environmental Health - How Can Food Allergy Reactions Be Prevented? - Peel Public Health

Proper food handling can prevent food allergy reactions. Ensuring the food safety of your customers is a shared responsibility between the customer and all food service staff.

Food premises staff should know how to get information about food ingredients. Customers depend on your knowledge of the menu ingredients to help them avoid certain foods. Certain allergic reactions to food could be fatal for some individuals.

Six steps to prevent food allergy reactions:

Establish A Food Ingredient Information Policy.
Communicate.
Find Out If In Doubt!
Treat Any Customer Concern About Food Ingredients Seriously.
Tips For Allergy-Safe Food Preparation.
Post The Emergency Pprocedures Where Everyone Can See Them.

Establish a food ingredient information policy.

A starting point in establishing a food ingredient policy is to review all recipes to identify possible allergy-causing foods. Ingredient lists on packaged and processed foods must also be checked. If ingredient information is not available, contact the supplier or distributor. It is also important that changes to ingredient lists be communicated and updated quickly.

Communicate

It is important to decide which method(s) is best for you to communicate information about food ingredients and preparation. It is vital that ingredient information is always accurate. Many restaurants list the food ingredients with each menu item. This may not always be accurate. Menus are not printed very often and standard recipes may not be followed exactly.
Here are some other methods of finding food ingredient information quickly and accurately:
- Allergy Charts
- Recipe Binders
- Designated Employee
Your local public health inspector is an excellent contact for information about preventing food allergies. Food suppliers also play an important role in preventing food allergies. Ask them to notify you of any changes in ingredients and to double check ingredient lists on a regular basis.

Find Out If In Doubt!

If you are unsure of the EXACT ingredients, tell the customer that you don’t know; people will appreciate your honesty. Guessing can be deadly. Encourage customers to ask about menu items by including a simple note on the menu such as:
INGREDIENT INQUIRIES ARE WELCOME. PLEASE ASK YOUR SERVER FOR MORE INFORMATION.
It is also important to remember that food labels may not always identify allergy-causing foods such as peanuts or peanut products. Ingredients described as hydrolyzed plant protein or other labels such as noughat should alert food handlers that a product may contain peanut protein. If in doubt, offer to bring the label to the customer’s table so that they can decide whether the food is safe to eat.

Treat Any Customer Concern About Food Allergies Seriously

Don’t put yourself or your customer at risk by trying to decide if the customer has a true food allergy or simply dislikes the food. It is important to respond to all customer questions with accurate information. Any employee providing inaccurate or misleading information about food ingredients may be libel for disciplinary action. The extra time required to respond to all food information requests is worth it!

Tips For Allergy Safe-Food Preparation

The following safety tips can help to make your kitchen food allergy-safe:

Always wash hands before preparing and handling food.
THOROUGHLY clean and sanitize work and cooking surfaces, utensils and any equipment that touches the food. Remember that very small amounts of food can cause an allergic reaction for some people.
Use separate cooking equipment and utensils when preparing foods for customers with food allergies.
Store allergy-causing foods separately in both the fridge and dry storage.
Be sure to label all food products with common names and ingredients whenever possible.

Post Emergency Procedres Where Everyone Can See Them

It is important for every food service operation to establish a medical emergency procedure. Training in emergency response procedures will prepare food handlers and service staff to handle emergency situations such as anaphylactic shock. The emergency procedures should include posting the local ambulance telephone number where all employees can see it.
Every person with food allergies must be very careful about the foods they eat. Dining out creates an even greater risk of having a food allergy reaction. The good news is that food allergy reactions can be prevented. Giving customers accurate ingredient information and using allergy-safe food handling procedures will help to prevent food allergy reactions from happening in your restaurant. What is more important, customers will recognize your efforts in meeting their special needs. This will improve customer satisfaction and your business image and reputation as a restaurant that cares about all of its customers’ needs and food safety.