Boston Nesties
bostonbaker
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
food allergy safety in restaurants
boston.com has this article up this morning.
What do you all think? I am wondering if a mistake happens and someone does have an allergic reaction, could the restaurant be sued? It seems to be opening up a lot of liability on the restaurant's end. I can see the other side of it though, where if I had food allergies it would be really nice to go to any restaurant and ask to have a safe meal and be accommodated.
Re: food allergy safety in restaurants
I don't have food allergies, but my younger cousin is allergic to many nuts. He is very cautious when he goes to restaurants (fast food or sit down). Even though he's only 14 he pretty much knows what he needs to stay away from. However, I do think that he/his parents have a responsibility to inform the waitor/chef of said allergy if they think it could be an issue.
On the other hand I do think it would be helpful for those who have allergies to see on the menu things like 'some receipes contain nuts' or next to specific items. This way it is clean to the diner what they shouldn't pick and/or to ask that the utensils being used to prepare their food does not come in contact with nuts.
If there is a request by the diner with allergies to the waitor/chef about their allergies and the restaurant ignores the claims, then I think the diner has a right to sue. But I also don't think it is fair to the restaurant if the diner picks a nut containing item and doesn't ask about it.
Overall I think having something on the menu could be benefitial for all.
I have severe nut allergies, ALL nuts, so it is a HUGE concern of mine when I go out to eat. I can not tell you how many times I have asked a server about an item and they do NOT know, or the cook doesn't know. WTF? I find this to be the case most often in chain places were the chef opens bags or plates of frozen prepared meals and doesn't really do much cooking. Sometimes it is obvious by looking at the menu and other times it is not... Do they use peanut oil to cook or fry? You would be surprised at the number of people who don't know that most pesto is made with nuts...
As for suing, if a diner alerts the server to the allergy or asks about a specific menu item, and they provide false info, then yes, I believe they are negligent and should be held accountable, it is someone's life at stake and they made an effort to find out prior and relied upon the server or chef's assurances to their detriment.
I have a friend who has allergies, and while I know it's my choice, I don't eat meat and you'd be surprised by how many food items it is unclear of what is really in it. For example, we were going to order from a fish and chip shop down on the cape, and asked about peanut oil since it cooks at a higher heat it's often used. Well they didn't use it, but they picked up on what we were asking, and they do use peanut or something in the flour for the batter. Even if it's been processed in the same plant it's possibly contaminated. This is going to be huge, because people who do have allergies can always ask, but like it's been said servers don't always know, and it can cause huge problems. Requiring the training will be really helpful.
I wish they had the standardized labeling for veggie foods too like they do for allergy contaminates. They do it in England and it's really helpful because there are so many questionable additives in our food, like who would think that calcium fortified orange juice (tropicana brand) wouldn't be vegan. They put lanolin in it or something. Just weird what they put in our foods.