It is important to know what to do if you serve a customer who has a food allergy, because these allergies can be life-threatening. By law, you must tell your customers
if certain food allergens are in the food you prepare (see the section on the next page). You also need to refer to and complete the ‘Managing Food Allergen information’ pages in the Management section of this pack. All of the FSA’s information, guidance and templates are available on the FSA website.

SAFETY POINT WHY? HOW DO YOU DO THIS?

Delivery and Collection

Make sure, at the point of delivery, you label the food and check you have all the ingredient information you need from the supplier.

Preparation

Make sure you do not contaminate foods for an allergic consumer while you are preparing food for them.

Check the labelling information to make sure that any ingredients used to prepare the dish do not contain the food they are allergic to, including oils, dressings, glazes, sauces and garnishes.

If the labels of any of the ingredients you are using to prepare that dish say they may contain certain food allergens or are not suitable for certain food allergy sufferers, you need to let the customer know and ask them if they still wish to order.

When you have been asked to prepare a dish that does not contain a certain food, make
sure work surfaces and equipment have beenthoroughly cleaned first. Make sure staff wash their hands thoroughly before preparing the dish. You should also have separate preparation boards and equipment dedicated to allergy-free meals.

If you make a mistake when preparing a dish
for a customer with a food allergy, do not just remove the ingredient containing the allergen from the dish and still serve the food - start from scratch with fresh ingredients.

Remember: unlike bacteria, allergens are always present in the food and cannot be removed or destroyed by cooking.

This helps to prevent small amounts of the food that a person is allergic to getting into the dish accidentally, which could prove fatal.

How do you prepare foods for allergic consumers?

Storage

It is important to make sure all foods are labelled clearly listing the allergens in the food, fully covered, resealed or placed into sealed containers if needed and any food spillages in storage areas/equipment are cleaned up quickly. Make sure you clearly label containers with the ingredients.

Allergens can easily be transferred from one food to another meaning allergen-free foods can become contaminated and no longer allergen- free. This poses a risk to a customer with a food allergy being served food and suffering an allergic reaction.

How do you store foods once opened?

Service & Take Away Orders

Cross contamination of a food allergy customer’s orders can take place during transport from
your business to the customer’s home and during service. You should take steps to prevent contamination such as keeping the food for the customer with an allergy separate, labelled and covered well.

During service, it is also important to ensure that the right meal is served to the correct person.

If a food allergy customer’s order is contaminated with allergens, they could suffer an allergic reaction.

How do you prevent contamination from allergens in take away orders?

Food Standards Agency l food.gov.uk/sfbb

THINK TWICE!

Peanuts Eggs

Milk Fish

Crustaceans

Molluscs

Cereals containing gluten (namely wheat (such as spelt and Khorasan wheat), barley, rye and oats)

Celery

Lupin Mustard

Sesame seeds Soya

Sulphur dioxide (when added and above 10mg/ kg in the finished food and drink)

In sauces, cakes, desserts. Don’t forget groundnut oil and peanut flour.

In cakes, mousses, sauces, pasta, quiche, some meat products. Don’t forget foods containing mayonnaise or brushed with egg.

In yoghurt, cream, cheese, butter, milk powders. Also check for foods glazed with milk.

In some salad dressings, pizzas, relishes, fish sauce. You might also find fish in some soy and Worcestershire sauces.

Such as prawns, lobster, scampi, crab, shrimp paste.
These include mussels, whelks, squid, land snails, oyster sauce.

Also check foods containing flour, such as bread, pasta, cakes, pastry, meat products, sauces, soups, batter, stock cubes, breadcrumbs, foods dusted with flour.

This includes celery stalks, leaves and seeds and celeriac. Also look out for celery in salads, soups, celery salt, some meat products.

Lupin seeds and flour in some types of bread and pastries.

Including liquid mustard, mustard cress, mustard powder and mustard seeds, in salad dressings, marinades, soups, sauces, curries, meat products.

In bread, breadsticks, tahini, houmous, sesame oil.

As tofu or beancurd, edamame, tempeh, soya flour and textured soya protein, in some ice cream, sauces, desserts, meat products, vegetarian products.

In meat products, fruit juice drinks, dried fruit and vegetables, wine, beer.

Which ingredients can cause a problem?

You must provide information about allergens to your customers if they are used as ingredients in the food and drink that you provide. You can find further information on the FSA website

These are some of the foods people may be allergic to and where they may be found:

Nuts (Namely almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, pecan nuts, Brazil nuts, pistachio, cashew, Macadamia or Queensland nut).

In sauces, desserts, crackers, bread, ice cream, marzipan, ground almonds, nut oils.

WHAT TO DO IF THINGS GO WRONG HOW TO STOP THIS HAPPENING AGAIN

If you think a customer is having a severe allergic reaction:

• do not move them

• ring 999 and ask for an ambulance with a paramedic straight away

• explain that your customer could have anaphylaxis (pronounced ‘anna-fill-axis’)

• send someone outside to wait for the ambulance

• if the customer has an adrenalin or Epi pen, help them to get it.

• Make sure all your staff understand how important it is to check all the contents of a dish if asked by someone who has a food allergy.

• Make sure you keep accurate and updated ingredient information for all ready-made products and staff know to check it.

• Review the way that staff prepare a dish for someone with a food allergy – are they cleaning effectively first and using clean equipment?

• Improve the descriptions on your menu.

• Train staff again on this safe method.

• Improve supervision.

Write down what went wrong and what you did about it in your diary.