Dining With Allergies

If you have food allergies and head to a restaurant, what your server and chef don’t know could hurt you…and there’s a lot they may not know.

Food allergies send thousands of Americans to the hospital each year. People with food allergies may be at extra risk when they don’t do their own cooking.

Restaurant owners, managers, servers, and chefs were asked about their knowledge of food allergies. Eighty-one percent felt confident that they could safely serve a meal to a customer with food allergies. But nearly one-quarter thought that eating a small amount of an allergy trigger is safe, which is not true.

Twenty-one percent thought that removing an allergy trigger from a prepared meal makes it safe. This is also not true. Sixteen percent felt that cooking food will keep it from triggering an allergy. Again, not true. And a scary twelve percent didn’t know that food allergies can be fatal.

The researchers urge diners to be very persistent when checking that a restaurant can safely work with their allergies, and to be aware that chefs may not know more about food allergies than servers.