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Everything You Need To Know About Food Allergies

We cannot stress this enough. If you are operating a restaurant, catering business, café or any other food service establishment, you need to know about food allergies. Studies show that about 6% of South Africans suffer from some or other food allergy that if triggered, can lend them in the emergency room. For this reason, you need to make sure your business follows all the necessary guidelines to protect your patrons and you from allergic reactions, otherwise you could have a PR nightmare on your hands or even worse – a lawsuit.

Want to know how to do it? We at Core Catering Supplies are here to get you in the know ASAP. Keep reading for everything you need to know about food allergies, including what they are, how to prevent reactions and how to protect your customers.

What Are Food Allergies?

Unfortunately, studies show that the number of people suffering from food allergies is on the rise so it seems this problem isn’t going anywhere. It has even been reported that more than half of the number of fatal episodes occur outside the home  – even more reason to pay attention to this guide. Understandably, this results in cautious customers who may avoid eating out if they even just have a mild food allergy.

But don’t throw in the towel just yet, creating a food-safe environment in your business is actually much easier than you may think. There are several strategies you can employ to earn the trust of your food-sensitive patrons. Start by making sure you understand what your customers are and if you can work around it. To do this, you’ll need great communication between your front- and back-of-house staff. You’ll also need to make sure that everyone is knowledgeable about the ingredients they use so that they can detect known allergens.

Within the service industry, food allergy reactions are normally triggered by either cross-contact or cross-contamination. Thankfully, you can avoid both scenarios quite easily.

What Is Cross-Contact?

Cross contact occurs when different foods come into contact with each other. If one of the foods contains an allergen, this allergen gets transferred from one type of food to the other because their proteins mix. At this point of contact, both items of food will contain microscopic trace amounts of the allergen.

Preventing Cross-Contact

There are many ways you can avoid cross-contact in your foodservice establishment as we’ll show you before. Before we start, we need to clear up some common confusion. Cooking does not eliminate or reduce the likelihood of an allergic reaction caused by cross-contact, whereas with cross-contamination cooking can help.

Follow Proper Sanitation Practice

Make sure that everyone in your staff washes, rinses and properly sanitises all the cookware, utensils and equipment after they used it to handle a food allergen. This doesn’t mean a simple rinse or wipe, a proper clean using soap and water is necessary. Also, ensure that your cooks and chefs wash hands and change gloves before and after handling food with known allergens.

Use Different Equipment

In order to avoid cross-contact, your staff needs to use separate equipment to prepare meals for customers with food allergies. This includes all your appliances like grills, fryers and blenders because microscopic traces of the allergen could still be lurking on their surfaces if not cleaned properly.

Setup A Food Safe Serving Plan

Once the special, allergen-sensitive meal has been made, you need to make sure it arrives at the right customer without getting contaminated on the way. For instance, you can use a different coloured bowl or plate to label their meal so that your servers know it’s been made with special care. After pickup, your servers must also deliver allergen-sensitive meals separately otherwise cross-contact can occur due to close to the close proximity between multiple plates.

What Is Cross-Contamination?

Cross-contamination occurs when bacteria and other microorganisms contaminate food during storage and preparation. You can generally avoid carrying over foodborne illnesses caused by cross-contamination by properly cooking the food beforehand; however, that’s not always the case. For this reason, you should aim to avoid the scenario entirely. Here’s how:

Follow Proper Storage Guidelines

Make sure to store your ingredients in such a way that they can’t contaminate one another, for example, you must keep raw meat and seafood in a sealed container on the bottom shelf of your refrigerator so that their juices can’t drip onto other foods.

Keep Food Clean

Once you have washed produce, keep them in clean storage containers instead of placing them back in their original packaging. This is because the packaging itself could be host to the bacteria or microorganisms in question.

Use Colour-Coded Kitchen Equipment

Make sure to kit out your kitchen with HACCP colour-coded knives and other utensils to avoid cross-contamination altogether. HACCP colour coded utensils designate green for fresh produce, white for dairy, yellow for raw poultry, red for raw meat, blue for raw fish and brown for cooked meat.

LARGE CUTTING BOARD (PE)

Arcos chef's knife 250mm in blue.

HACCP Chef’s Knives

The Top 8 Food Allergens

Now that you know how to avoid food allergens from getting to your customers, you must be thinking about what foods to look out for in the first place. There are over 160 known sources of food allergens in existence so it’s impossible to prepare your kitchen for all of them in advance. Instead, make sure to ask your patrons if they have any allergies before they place their order. Luckily, 90% of all food allergy reactions are caused by a small group of allergens known as the “Big Eight”.

1 – Dairy Milk

A dairy milk allergy is one of the most common of the lot and mostly affects babies and young children. Those who are allergic to cow’s milk should also avoid the milk from other animals like goats to be safe.

Some sources – butter, cheese, pudding, sour cream, caramel, chocolate, lunch meat and steak

2 – Eggs

The white of an egg contains the protein that causes allergic reactions, but it’s best to avoid the food altogether if you are sensitive to eggs.

Some sources – baked goods, macaroni, marshmallows, mayonnaise, foam topping on drinks and egg was for baked goods

3 – Peanuts

Peanuts grow underground and are in the same family as beans, peas and lentils, making them different from tree nuts. However, tree nuts and peanuts often come into contact with one another during the manufacturing process.

Some sources – baked goods, candy, peanut butter, mixed nuts, chili, egg rolls, pancakes and meat substitutes

4 – Tree Nuts

These include walnuts, almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, pistachios and Brazil nuts. Generally, if you are allergic to one of them, you’re allergic to all of them.

Some sources – nut butter, pesto, artificial nuts, coconut, cereals, energy bars, flavoured coffee and Italian sausage.

5 – Fish

Cross-contact is very common in seafood restaurants, so if you’re allergic to fish, you should avoid these establishments completely. If you are allergic to one kind of fish, there is a 50% chance that you are allergic to other types of fish as well.

Some sources – all types of fish, barbecue sauce, Caesar dressing, meatloaf and Worcestershire sauce

6 – Shellfish

There are two groups of shellfish: crustacea (shrimp, crayfish and crab) and mollusks (clams, mussels and oysters). The majority of shellfish allergy reactions are as a result of crustacea and they are usually severe.

Some sources – all types of shellfish and Asian dishes that use fish sauce as a flavour base

7 – Soy

Soybeans are typically found in processed food products, Asian food and meat substitutes.

Some sources – edamame, soy sauce, tempeh, tofu, canned tuna, processed meat, crackers and canned soup

8 – Wheat

Wheat is the root of gluten intolerance and occurs in a ton of ingredients. You can easily substitute wheat with alternative grains like barley, quinoa, rice and rye.

Some sources – bread, couscous, flour, seitan, ice cream, imitation crab, marinara sauce and processed meat

Create An Allergen Safe Menu

Another way you can avoid food allergy reactions in your restaurant is by creating an allergen safe menu that clearly identifies where possible allergens may occur and shows your guests what’s in the different meals. You can:

  • Mention the “Big Eight” in a meal’s description if it’s used in the preparation
  • Provide a general disclaimer for food items that can’t be altered to accommodate food allergies
  • Offer substitutes for common allergens
  • Market allergy-friendly meals on your menu using words like gluten-free or dairy-free
  • Include a notice on your menu that reminds guests to inform their servers of their food allergies

There is much to gain from creating a food allergy sensitive foodservice establishment. Not only will it prevent possible trips to the emergency room but it can also generate new revenue opportunities through marketing meals for certain people like the gluten or dairy intolerant. Make everyone feel comfortable in your business and you’ll see them coming back for years to come.

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