The Journey of a Restaurateur – How to Avoid Food Allergy Reactions?
Exhilarating, demanding and somewhat rewarding – these are the key three elements around which a restaurateur’s life revolves. Opening a professional restaurant chain is one of the best careers you can choose in this fast paced technology controlled era; taking in account the pace with which the culinary industry has revolutionized over the past few years.
However, in any business operation protocol, especially when running a professional restaurant, keeping a check over the safety of the customer’s is the most important thing you need to take care of. One of the biggest problems customers have to go through is a food allergy reaction, during galloping down chunks of their favorite exotic recipe
A research carried out by the Food Allergy and Research Education (FARE) shows that approximately 15 million Americans are suffering from food allergies – including 1 out of 13 children. For United Kingdom, the estimate goes to 17 million. After a recent death of a customer; due to peanut allergy, the restaurant owner was sentenced to a 6 year prison for food negligence which has driven restaurateurs to learn about food allergy reactions. Here is what you need to know!
Learn The Triggering Aspects:
Although you can never be sure about which food would trigger the allergic reactions, but studies show that 90% of all the food reactions are triggered from foods, falling under of the ‘Big 8’ categories – milk, soybeans, fish, peanuts, eggs, tree nuts, wheat and shellfish.
You staff must be trained to prevent cross contamination between different ingredients. Moreover, the customers also need to be well-versed about which element would ignite the allergic reaction, for example protein.
Plan to Reduce the Risk of Food Allergies:
Once the customer notifies the restaurant about an allergy, the food service operator needs to devise a four-pointer plan, which is to be followed by the staff. The first thing in the plan is that all the staff needs to know the allergies, and how to serve clients suffering from such disorders.
Second, you need to prevent any chances of cross contamination. Then, the front and the back house needs to stay in contact seamlessly, in order to make sure that right food goes to the right customer. Finally, you need to make sure that your marketing materials and welcoming strategy include empathizing with people suffering from food allergies.
Design and Implement a Protocol:
A restaurant needs to follow a certain protocol in order to make sure to deal effectively with people suffering from food allergies. First, the servers need to ask everyone at the table about any allergies, and explain each dish in the menu in detail.
When addressing the customers, the servers should inform them who and when to contact in case of any food allergy situations. Moreover, in order to prevent cross contamination, the servers need to serve the order themselves – to the person suffering from the allergy!
The Bottom Line:
Being an owner of a restaurant may provide you with a list of opportunities to prove you metal in the marketplace and make your mark, however, you need to make sure that you prioritize the safety of your clients and your employees every step of the way. In such cases, you need to learn about the most common food allergies, and design a protocol to deal with such scenarios efficiently!