Restaurants Benefit by Being Food Allergy Friendly

I love this article where Allergy Eats founder, Paul Antico explores how much it's worth for restaurants to cater to those with food allergies. He's got it right on the money. Our family would frequent an allergy friendly restaurant and would avoid those restaurants with an allergy unfriendly attitude. Eating establishments can take small steps that would put those with food allergies at ease.

I think it's funny that when travelling, our most comfortable eating spot is McDonald's. Our dairy, egg, peanut and tree nut allergic child can have a regular hamburger, apple slices and a drink. We explain the situation to the cashier (or manager if we can't identify an allergy-friendly cashier). Most of the time, the manager or cashier will decide they will just make his meal. Other times they go back and explain to the "cook" that we need to have hands freshly washed (or new gloves put on) and for nothing else to be touched while the burger is being made. We can also see and hear what's going on, which is another comforting feature of McDonald's.

So truly, if McDonald's can take the extra steps to ensure a safe experience, surely other restaurants can too!

5 comments:

Allergy Mum said...

My son has the same allergies, but I haven't tried anything at McDonalds with him except the fries. I was worried about the cross from the cheese on the hamburgers. Good to know that it has been a good place for your famliy. Perhaps we will try it and see how the manager handles the request. We eat at Harveys all the time when we travel & they are always great with food allergies.
Allergy Mum - http://allergymum.blogspot.com/

Unknown said...

Hi Allergy Mum,

Now we avoid the french fries at McDonalds because the natural beef flavoring contains hydrolyzed milk. I guess you've not had any problems with them?

Allergy Mum said...

I am in Canada and our are dairy free. I understand that this is not the case in the US.
Allergy Mum - http://allergymum.blogspot.com/

Unknown said...

HA! The next time we go to McDonalds, we'll say, "We want some Canadian fries, please"!

I'm on a mission for American McDonalds to use dairy free french fries in their restaurants.

Anonymous said...

Here's a solution to what you can eat at several restaurants including McDonald's and it applies to ALL allergies.
Go to this free site: www.gipsee.com :
enter your food allergies, pick a restaurant and find out what you can eat considering your unique allergies
It does an ingredient-based search!