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but the whole US… thing is such a massive turn off

Hard agree

That’s rubbish! This case looks like miscommunication and assumptions, compounded by other issues. Most dental practices have an Epipen or another AAI for example.

miscommunication and assumptions

I think this is exactly right, compounded by gaps in staff training and badly designed SOP. I know of two incidents in 5 star London hotels in the past 12 months where cakes containing nuts were served to guests who had explicitly declared a nut allergy to their server.

It must be horrendous living with a serious allergy and having to play Russian roulette every time you eat out.

I work on the events team at work and it's ridiculous how often things at venues are not labelled or the food offered for people with allergies is really inadequate. When I joined the team we had an all day conference where the food had already been sorted before I joined. The only thing I could eat in the evening section was a canapé that was literally just a cube of melon soaked in alcohol.

He was shite in the private sector.

You need to deferentiat between his view and the reality of those working with him.

you eat out

I actually think it's mad people do. The risk is just so great and I don't think you can rely on others when it comes to stuff like this

When I worked in catering a lot of the chefs didn’t believe that allergies (or bacteria) were real things. Wiping a knife blade on a towel was judged sufficient to clean it after cutting raw chicken and prior to slicing lettuce for a salad. Honestly I’m amazed the whole industry works as well as it does- which is not great.

So effectively anyone with any kind of food allergy is a second class citizen?

I think if you have a severe allergy it's just too risky. I'm not saying it's right or fair but how can you guarantee theres no cross contamination. If I had a severe allergy I just wouldn't eat in restaurants. Would you?

Someone I knows GF has an extreme nut allergy. They basically just don't eat out together as the risk is high and confidence is low.

Someone else I know manages a new joiner with an extreme nut allergy so recently went on a H&S training course for it. They work in a serviced office, and on the days they're in the office they need to sweep the office for the comp breakfast and snacks. If they bring lunch back to the office it needs to be clean plus check others do the same - hummus being a common culprit for having to throw lunches.

I often put hummus in sandwiches as an additional protein source/sauce. I've now got out of the habit for when my kid goes to clubs/camp but there have been at least a couple of times I've forgotten and only pulled them out at the last minute following a prompt from my OH.

All that to say, I can see how easy it is to make mistakes that have extreme consequences.

We have a recent ban on food at desks due to someone having an airborne allergy to something. It's taking a long time to break habits. Ever been busy and eaten lunch at your desk? Can't anymore. Bring in a cake to share with your team for some reason? No longer possible. (You.can leave it in the kitchen and share it with the whole office but nobody wants to do that).

They will be at a buffet. It's never going to be possible for someone with a severe allergy to be safe at those.

It is easy to make mistakes.

My 5 yr old has packed lunches for school. I know 100% he's not allowed peanut butter sandwiches at school, but one day I made them and put them in his lunchbox. Only remembered when I was putting his lunchbox in his schoolbag.

One of my friends had a severe peanut allergy and has a very select few restaurants/takeaways that they trust.

Also booking airBNBs and things like that, husband needs to clean larder and fridge etc before using.

She recently had an allergic reaction, because she was washing clothes and scrubbed at a stain on her son’s nursery school clothes which happened to be peanut butter.

I don’t have peanut oil in the house and deep clean the kitchen before she and her family come round, and am still on edge when they come round for dinner. I don’t know how many of their other friends, or even restaurants take that kind of care.

I’m glad I don’t have an allergy that could kill me, but if I did I would do my best to avoid any risk, or rely on the hygiene standards of others.

I can see it being very easy to mix up orders, and put different names on coffee cups, it looks manic at busy times.

Also plenty of people drink alternative milks due to preference or beliefs rather than allergy/intolerance, so a small amount of cross contamination is probably rarely noticed.
It’s the first time I’ve heard of someone having a deadly allergy to milk/lactose though.

There’s probably trace amounts of lactose in any restaurant food that’s not vegan.

We have very strict NO NUTS policy at work, if I’m driving the minibus I’m not allowed to have peanut butter on my toast in the morning. Yet at Christmas all the tubs of chocolates have a nutty one in there and nobody raises an alarm. When I do I get shouted down as a kill joy.
Also
There used to be a coffee place in town that was Vegan, nut and gluten free that used oak* mlk with a soya option. They didn’t say outside and only had a small sign over the menu stating it. I’d been a few times before I noticed.
*oat! Fucking OAT! autocomplete you arse.

There’s probably trace amounts of lactose in any restaurant that’s not vegan.
FTFY

There was another dairy allergy death in recent times. A woman died from eating a wrap from Pret, it was meant to be vegan but the coconut yoghurt in it had been contaminated at the manufacturer which is something Pret can't control. I had a reaction to an M&S salad with coconut yoghurt in, that I've eaten loads of times, around the same time as the Pret death and assumed it was the same manufacturer.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-63037929

There used to be a coffee place in town that was Vegan, nut and gluten free that used oak mlk

From tiny acorns great coffee chains grow.

A friend of mine came to visit us in Tokyo who had a severe shellfish allergy, and, especially then, Japan wasn’t great in dietary requirements *. His allergy was severe enough that when he tested a salad to see if it contained shellfish by putting his finger on the sauce he got blisters. He mainly ate McDonalds on that trip and I very quickly learnt the words for food allergy and epi-pen.

* Vegetarian ramen, you say? Okay, we’ll just serve the regular pork bone broth but without a slice of meat in.

Also plenty of people drink alternative milks due to preference or beliefs rather than allergy/intolerance, so a small amount of cross contamination is probably rarely noticed.

Of all the food/catering adjacent things I've used, I feel like a milk wand for steaming milk would be the hardest to confidently sanitise for someone with a severe allergy.

Obviously in an ideal world you have two and never mix them up, but at my current workplace the machine only has one so that wouldn't be an option

(At the risk of going back to boring anecdotes about flying food)

Vegetarian ramen, you say? Okay, we’ll just serve the regular pork bone broth but without a slice of meat in

When I was in Vietnam I just told everyone that I was Buddhist and that seemed to get the message across easily enough; although created more confusion when I would sometimes have an omelette

100% Acorn Latte's are the future:

https://wolfandiron.com/blogs/feedthewolf/how-to-make-acorn-coffee

Served in one of these, obvs

I'm coeliac, so it's not a severe allergy, but if accidentally ingest gluten then I'll be sick. I have to eat in restaurants, because if I'm travelling with work or entertaining clients then eating out is mandatory.

You can't just ban people from eating out. The catering industry needs to understand that this is an issue that they have to work with, and ensure that they have policies in place to deal with it and ensure staff are trained properly. If they won't, then legislation should be the next step.

Yeah I agree with that. My point was about people with severe allergies. You can put all that stuff in place and people will still make mistakes and and you end up dead.

I had a fellow student and she'd die from eating a lot of things, including nuts and celery. Celery is in like everything because broth.
So she just never ate out, unless it was a 2 Michelin stars thing when her parents visited.