Restaurants need to take some responsibility

We visited a fast food type yesterday for lunch. As always we brought a full meal for my son who has food allergies. I was disheartened to see a food allergy statement at the bottom of their menu that basically said "any of our food may have come in contact with an allergen such as milk, egg, peanut tree nuts, soy, fish and wheat". That's just not helpful, and frankly- not good enough. Disney restaurants can handle food allergies- even their fast food kiosks. Restaurants need to be held accountable to know exactly what is in their food and how to handle food so that it doesn't become contaminated by other food. That's their business. This issue doesn't only impact those with food allergies. People with diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, pregnant women, those with celiac disease or food intolerances or people who are just trying to monitor what they eat, should know exactly what is being served to them in a restaurant. Perhaps restaurants are worried about lawsuits so it's easier to make a blanket "eat here at your own risk" statement. This isn't about placing blame, it's about working together to give accurate and safe information.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wholeheartedly agree! We learned the hard way a few weeks ago that restaurants are completely negligent in their understanding of food allergies. My 2 year old daughter (who is allergic to egg, milk, and sesame) had an anaphylactic reaction requiring her epipen to a contaminated hot dog. Despite my notifying the server and her supposed review with the cooks on what was safe, she was still served a hot dog that we later found out was prepared in butter flavored oil. Thankfully she is just fine and we returned a week later to share with the manager many materials on food allergy awareness and safety. We will no longer trust a restaurant's judment on foods for her, unless something drastically changes with legislative movement to offer more reliable safety for our allergic children!

Unknown said...

Good for you for going back and talking to the manager about food allergies! By educating food service workers we can help make eating out a little safer for everyone.