Restaurants Embracing Consumers with Food Allergies

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Written by Kyle Eslick / Published in Restaurant News

Today while browsing the internet I ran across a nice post over at Chain Leader about restaurants learning to build loyal customers through embracing food allergies. I’ve always wondered why more companies didn’t do this, as there are so many people with food allergies these days that will eat at your restaurant.

Here is an excerpt from their post, which uses Red Robin and Biaggi’s Restaurant as examples:

A survey reported in the April 2007 issue of Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, the scientific journal of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, showed food-allergy training was only conducted in 42 percent of restaurants and food establishments. The article noted that while about 90 percent of managers, servers and chefs reported varying degrees of comfort with providing a safe meal, they had some misconceptions like consuming a small amount of allergen is safe (24 percent); fryer heat destroys allergens (35 percent); and removal of an allergen from a finished meal was safe (25 percent).

Schonman echoes the importance of food-safety training. “Take cross-contamination. If you’re cognizant of the rules about poultry and seafood, you understand why you can’t cook gluten-free pasta in the pasta cookers,” he says.

Biaggi’s sells enough gluten-free pasta (four to six servings each night) that now it’s precooked and preportioned, and a special pot of water is on to heat it up. Schonman says the rice-based pastas take longer to cook, and having it precooked means customers with allergies and their tablemates don’t have to wait.

He’s looking for more ways to serve guests with food allergies, including trying to source gluten-free pizza dough from a manufacturer large enough to supply all the units.

As mentioned in the article, communication is the most important part. Customers know what they can and cannot eat, so they just need to be educated about what ingredients are included in meals.

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