I realize that but from the perspective of the restaurant owner it’s the safest option.
And honestly if I had a food allergy that could kill me I wood not trust anyone who assured me the food they prepare is safe for me. Yes it sucks but think of how good of a cook you could become.
Spoken like someone who has never had to worry about that shit, and who thinks that if it’s not a problem for you personally, then it’s not really a problem at all.
Ah, yes. “Mistakes were made” is right up there with “taking it seriously” for noncommittal corporate douchespeak.
This is a great reminder that if you have a serious food allergy that you should always carry some sort of backup with you if you’re eating out. Be it some Benadryl (diphenhydramine if you’re nasty), or an EpiPen. Pro tip: get small baggy and put some Benadryl in it and keep it in your wallet or purse.
You really can’t trust servers to know for sure if something contains an ingredient or not. Believe it or not most restaurants don’t make everything from scratch and may use any number of pre-prepared ingredients in their food, or even pre-prepared dishes. I have a lot of family and friends with severe food allergies and am painfully aware of the problems that can occur when eating out.
I’m not sure what sort of allergy disclosures are required in the UK where this story took place, but in the US you only have to declare a specific set of allergens, and only if they are used as an ingredient. The “made in a factory that also processes peanuts” type notices are strictly voluntary.
I’m not sure how you interpreted what I wrote as insensitive…
All I’m suggesting is that when there’s any chance of ambiguity in a life and death situation it’s probably better for all parties to choose the most cautious path. If a restaurant decided to specialize in a 100% nut free inventory then they could be confident telling customers they’re safe (but even then they can’t guarantee something wasn’t contaminated by a vendor/supplier) but any other restaurant should default to the safest option.
I imagine that if this becomes a real thing, it would be very popular. It would be helpful for people with allergies.
Yes, that was a Panera Bread in the town in which I live and work. I’ve been to that Panera before on a number of occasions.
I hope they didn’t bring the child with them to pick up the food, since based on the address shown in that story that Panera Bread is right next to a Five Guys restaurant that offers peanuts in the shell for patrons to snack on while waiting for their burgers and fries. [To be fair the Five Guys has a sign on each of the exit doors that make up their entry “airlock” that asks patrons not to bring the nuts outside due to the fact that people in the area may be allergic.]
Where can you get pufferfish in San Francisco?
Indeed. And vindaloo will take your breath away twice.
I had a buddy who could pick up anaphylaxis off of cigarette smoke. Cities were effectively off limits. She got a PhD in Ecology and is chasing elm beetles around the Rockies.
In a society ruled by common sense, asking a restraunt employee point blank, "does this dish contain (x) ? , where (x) is a poison to the person asking the question, you’d expect this to be a pretty straightforward request. It’s not, "what are the chances it’s been accidentally contimanted by a neighboring ingredient, it’s Did you put this ingredient in my food?
In the case cited above, and with my friend, both times the question had to do with the recipe, not the chances of accidental contamination.
It would of course be safest of all for people with food sensitivities to stay away from all food served in public. Limiting their social and career opportunies drastically. Here in the real world, we look both ways before crossing the street, and we ask the server what’s in the food, and if they’re not sure, or they say “it’s safe” in that tone of voice that means, “I’m telling you what I think you want to hear so I can tip out and make it home in time for the late show” then we get up and find a place with a more specific menu.
The same “safety” argument can beade against serving anyone with a physical handicap. The wheelchair could get stuck on the stairs. The blind guest might touch something hot. The deaf guest might misunderstand the waiter. Safest just to deny them service, but the ADA has something to say about that. I think it should apply here too.
I’ve worked in food service, mainly at a hospital, and I’m always surprised when staff or the restaurant isn’t very good about this. At the hospital, there were safeguards, because… hospital. But in other cases, I’ve usually never had a hard time going to the kitchen and asking what was in the dish. Occasionally it’s necessitated lugging a giant Sysco box out of the freezer to look at the world’s most inconveniently placed ingredients list, but that’s about as hard as it ever got. Any restaurant where people aren’t willing or able to do this isn’t worth your time or your money.
When I was dating a woman with Celiac, it was the ethnic places that were the hardest to navigate. We could usually get a clear answer about wheat in the food, but abstracting that to gluten was problematic. When all else failed, we’d go to Wendy’s (sigh)
So I tend to give restaurants a pass on this to some extent in large part because fad dieters have clouded the waters on this. I had to learn about it at the hospital and promptly discovered the rest of the world doesn’t understand it. I’ve met too many people who claim to be “gluten intolerant” that say they can have “small amounts” which generally turn out to be a fair amount. That’s not good enough for a lot of people living with celiac, where the safe limit is something like 20ppm. If the restaurant says gluten-free on the menu, they better know their shit. Otherwise, I don’t blame people for being unsure- as long as the uncertainty is communicated.
I interpreted it more as: “If it is one’s life-or-death problem, then perhaps better to not trust one’s life to random strangers”.
I don’t trust people very much about food generally, and with such an allergy, I would trust them far less. Which is to say, not at all.
Yeah, I strongly suspect that what a lot of people are reacting to is starch in general, but it’s a lot ‘cooler’ to be gluten intolerant than it is to be pre-diabetic.
As someone with lactose intolerance (like 75% of the world population), I long ago learned to always eat antidote before eating food from someone else, because it’s most likely poisoned. It’s amazing how people find ingenious ways to put milk and cheese in things that shouldn’t have it and don’t sound like they would. Reading the ingredients isn’t enough because “Mushroom sauce” may well be 98% cream with 2% mushrooms. And it won’t tell you that low-fat sausage may be 5 times as much lactose as regular sausage due to the fillers. I can’t imagine how bad it would be for someone who’s actually allergic. If I had an actual dairy allergy, I wouldn’t even try a restaurant.
Guess we’d all better stop using cars then, since the outcome of driving places is uncertain. Planes, too, boats, walking, eating (even without allergies you might choke!). I’d suggest laying perfectly still in bed, but then you might get hit by a meteor or something.
You’re never going to get 100% certainty in any situation. Just because some people have a risk of food allergy that you don’t doesn’t mean that they’re stupid to not reduce their risk to exactly the same level as yours, nor that people who attempt to cater for their needas without dedicating their business to that purpose are foolish. This particular instance was negligence; restaurants should as a matter of course be aware of their food’s potential to trigger at least the common food allergies, and employees not familiar with it off the top of their head should check with someone there who does know. At that point they’ve taken enough steps that mistakes beyond that point are either negligence by individuals involved in the process or the inevitable nature of not being able to reduce risk to 0.
Two items:
Yes completely true, unless they advertise the kitchen as nut free, it is not. I think the fault lies with the victim on this, with that serious of an allergy he should know that nothing is nut free unless they specifically advertise as such. unless the restaurants had a note in the menu or a sign in the restaurant “Nut Free” I also think this is one of those cases, did not have an epi pen. Which I do not understand, if eating something could kill you, you dam well should be carrying the only thing that can save you.
