Allergies can be debilitating and fundamentally life threatening if not appropriately managed.
I recently met with Adam and Gemma Lee, whose daughter Megan tragically passed away after eating a takeaway from a restaurant in 2017. This terrible death occurred after Megan’s meal contained food ingredients she was highly allergic to, despite the fact that the establishment was pre-warned of her life-threatening food allergy, and she was reassured the necessary precautions had been taken for her to safely eat with them.
It is essential that businesses across the UK have adequate training and support to ensure that they can safely cater for people with allergic conditions.
Allergy UK works with organisations across the UK to drive awareness and understanding of the needs of people living with food allergies, in work, travel, hospitality and schools. Their Allergy Awareness Scheme has been developed to help catering establishments provide for the needs of their customers and safely provide for those with allergic conditions.
With that in mind, I am strongly encouraging all businesses to review the trading standards for food practitioners; https://www.tradingstandards.uk/practitioners/food-allergen-resource/
Recent statistics for Yorkshire show:
- 43% of adults with a food allergy often when asked for the allegern menu, were told by servers that they don’t have one
- 55% of adults with a food allergy has felt discriminated against at a resturant because there was nothing they could safely eat
- 47% of adults with a food allergy wasn’t told a dish contained their allergen, even after asking, to then have an allergic reaction
- 30% of adults with a food allergy feel very or severely anxious about having an allergic reaction while eating out
- 70% of adults (with and without allergies) feel restaurants and pubs should cater more to people with allergies
