Food allergies can be life threatening, it is important to know exactly what your dishes contain.
Examples of allergies/intolerances:
Wheat - wheat grain is found in a wide range of products eg: bread, pasta and ready meals.
Gluten - gluten is a protein and extreme cases of gluten allergies are described as Coeliac Disease.
Dairy - may be limited to cows milk and some sufferers can substitute cows milk for goats/ soya milk.
Nuts - this is a potentially fatal allergy. Should somebody have a reaction to nuts ACT IMMEDIATELY and call 999, if there is a pharmacy/chemist nearby, go directly to the counter and inform the pharmacist.
Fish - fish and prawns can cause violent sickness to sufferers.
For further information on food allergies, click here.
Your actions:
1. Keep a log of events if things go wrong, what did you do?
2. Make sure you and your team know about the contents of a dish if they are asked by someone who has a food allergy.
3. Think about the descriptions on your menu.
4. Make sure you have a process in place if you think a customer is having a severe allergic reaction.
