Food Allergies in the Food Handler’s Permit Course!

By Kelley Lindberg

In a few weeks, my son will be finishing ninth grade. For his class, it’s not just the end of the school year, but it’s also the end of junior high, and the end of being the “big guys/gals on campus.”

To end the year in style, the school has filled the next few weeks with activities, including an evening program during the last week, at which there will be food.

My son’s best bud since babyhood also has food allergies, and the two of them have been in the same school together since kindergarten. They’ve shared the food allergy table for ten years, they’ve watched out for each other, and they’ve weathered the same food-allergy issues in their classes. The friend’s mom, Kim, is also one of my best friends, and together Kim and I have chaperoned every field trip and party, bought treats for every dance, found safe substitutes for every food-based art project you can think of, and supported each other through thick and thin.

Now we have one more food-oriented school event to get through together.

So Kim and I find ourselves taking the state food handler’s permit test this week. It’s not the first time, either. Back when the boys were in third grade, there was a big school event where we had to cook paella and gazpacho for 300 people. So that year we dutifully volunteered to help make the food so that we could ensure it was safe for our food-allergic boys, which meant we had to get our food handler’s permits. But the permits only last for 3 years, so now we need to get a permit once more.

So I took the course and test online last night, and I was surprised to find that the course for a Utah food handler’s permit has a big change from the last time we took the test 6 years ago. Now there is an entire section of the course devoted to explaining the seriousness of food allergies!

I was thrilled to see that they spent so much time explaining the symptoms, describing how to avoid cross-contamination, explaining that contact with allergens can be fatal, and even warning servers and cooks that customers who have food allergy reactions in their restaurant may not even be aware they have allergies until that first reaction.

While including food allergy information in the food handler’s permit course doesn’t make every cook and server an expert on food allergies (face it, even those of us living with food allergies feel like we learn new things about them every day), it at least ensures that they’ve been exposed to the idea. That’s a significant jump from six years ago, when I don’t recall anything about food allergies in that course at all!

So I’m sending a big shout-out to the state of Utah for recognizing that food handlers are an important first line of defense for those of us in the community with food allergies. Thank you!

(And in case you’re waiting in suspense, wondering how it all turned out… Yes, I did pass the test. I’ll even show you the certificate sometime if you want to see it!)

A Food Allergy Close Call

By Kelley Lindberg


“My son is allergic to peanuts and all tree nuts. Can you check with the cook to make sure there are no nuts in this pasta?” I asked the waitress.

“I don’t think there are, but I’ll be sure and tell the cook,” she replied.

We’d eaten at this restaurant before. Many times. And my son had ordered this particular dish before, too, which is part of why he ordered it. But we try to make it a habit to ask every single time we go somewhere. You can never be too safe, you know.

Our food came, and my son speared a shrimp and ate it. Then he spied something different in the sauce on his plate. Something he didn’t recognize. He fished it out with his fork and held it in front of me. “What is this?” he asked.

It looked like a sliced almond. Maybe it was a sliced water chestnut, I told myself. I took it and ate it. Damn. “It’s an almond, honey.”

He immediately spit the remainder of his first bite out, and began rubbing his tongue with his napkin. I tore open four anti-histamine fast-melts and he popped them in as fast as humanly possible. My mom, who was eating with us, flagged down the waitress. “There are almonds in his food!” she told the waitress, who blanched and took away the dish.

Another waitress came out and asked if she could get something else for my son to eat. No, we said, we need to just see what happens now. She brought him some water.

The manager came out, and we explained that we’d asked about allergies, the waitress had told us she’d check, and still she brought him food with almonds in it. He apologized and offered to bring something different for him to eat.

My son didn’t want anything different to eat.

He was panicking.

I’d never seen him like that before. He’s only been accidentally exposed to nuts a couple of times in his life. The last time was maybe 4 or 5 years ago, in Mexico. He had been very calm then, and calmly took his antihistamine when I gave it to him, and calmly ate the rest of his food while I watched him like a hawk, EpiPen in hand.

This time was different. This time, he was 14 and aware. He was 14 and remembering the teen girl in California who died last month after accidentally tasting a treat with peanut butter in it. He was 14 and suddenly afraid of dying from something he had previously worried about more as a mental exercise than as an actual threat, because we’ve been so careful for so many years that it became easy to take things for granted, to assume that because we were careful, he’d be fine.

So he was experiencing this accidental exposure in a whole different way for him. Suddenly it was real, and scary, and new. Even though he’s known he was allergic his whole life. This was new.

I watched him for the tiniest sign of a reaction. For a hint of hives. For a slight hoarseness to his voice. For his coloring, his breathing, his mental alertness. Fortunately, no symptoms came.

But what I wasn’t expecting was his fear. His legs were shaking up and down like pistons. He couldn’t sit still, rubbing his hands on his legs, taking sip after sip of water. I wrapped my arm around his shoulders and talked to him, tried to calm him down, talked him through the first twenty minutes. He showed no symptoms. I told him that was a good sign, but he was still shaking. I talked him through another ten minutes. Still no symptoms. Still shaking. Another ten. Still no symptoms. I reassured him that after 40 minutes, the chances of an anaphylactic reaction were probably minimal, and that we would surely have seen some reaction by then. We sat in the booth at the restaurant the whole time, because I didn’t want to move. I wanted to sit there and talk to him, keep him calm, watch his face for the slightest hint of a reaction.

Finally, after nearly an hour without a single symptom, I told him we could go. When we got home, he sat on the couch beside me for the rest of the evening. His fear had diminished, finally, but nervousness still pulsed at his edges.

As we left, the manager apologized profusely and said he would be doing new training the following weekend for his entire staff about food allergies. He told me he was also an EMT, and that he knew how serious food allergies were, and how dismayed he was that his staff had let this happen. Then he waived our entire bill.

My son and I have talked about this experience, and here are the things we learned:

1. We were very glad that his first exposure as a teenager was with me. We talked about how lucky we both were that it didn’t happen when he was out with his friends, where maybe no one else would know what to do or how to keep him calm. We talked about what he should do next time if I’m not there. Being prepared is half the battle. Even though we thought he was prepared before, he wasn’t. Not really.
2. We can never stop being vigilant, even for a second. We asked the waitress about nuts when we placed our order, but we didn’t follow up with her when she brought the food, assuming it had been prepared the same way as the last time he'd ordered it. We made an assumption that she’d talked to the cook, but that was a wrong assumption. We have to remember to ask, and ask again, every single time.
3. Because of our experience, the entire staff of that restaurant may take food allergies more seriously from now own, making that restaurant a safer place for others with food allergies who may go there. So something good can come from something bad. Nice to remember. 
4. He relearned how absolutely critical it is that he keep his EpiPens and antihistamine with him at all times. As a teen, it’s easy to get forgetful, or careless, or overconfident. This was a stark reminder of how important that little case of meds was to him right then, and how glad he was that we had it with us. I think he’ll do a better job of keeping it with him now.
5. Because we’ve been so careful to avoid nuts his entire life, he doesn’t really know what nuts can look like when they’re mixed into food. Sure, he can identify a big ol’ bin of them at the grocery store, and he knows what a peanut shell looks like, but when they’re sliced or chopped or blended into a sauce, he has no idea what they look like. We need to spend some time looking at how nuts are prepared, so that he will recognize them when he sees them. It never occurred to me that he wouldn’t recognize one in his own food.
6. Fear can undermine everything. If you’re afraid, you forget to think calmly and clearly. You may not make good decisions. You may not remember what to do. We need to work together, he and I, on taking away the fear that made him panic, leaving just enough of the fear that will make him careful. A little is good, a lot is not necessarily so. But we’re a team, and we can work through this together.

We got lucky this time. It was a close call, but fortunately, he must not have come into contact with the almonds in his dish, so he didn’t have a reaction. Or maybe the antihistamine stopped it before it could get started. Whatever it was, we are very grateful. And now we have a renewed determination to be even more careful than before.

 

Restaurant Success

by Kelley Lindberg


Ten years ago, restaurants seemed completely unaware of food allergies. I’d ask about allergies and receive blank stares or statements like, “no, there are no nuts in this ice cream. It’s just pistachio flavored.” Hunh?

But now, many restaurants seem to be much more informed, as a rule. It doesn’t mean they’re perfect or completely safe, of course, but more and more restaurants are training their chefs and wait staff to take allergies seriously. They are publishing ingredients lists, special menus, or warnings if they can’t accommodate allergies.

The Cantina Southwestern Grill is a restaurant in Layton, Utah, that we’ve begun frequenting because of their attentiveness to my son’s food allergies to peanuts and nuts.

Now that my son is old enough that he’s no longer interested in the children’s menu, his choices are getting more creative, and the risk of nut contamination has grown tremendously. (I miss the days when he was happy with a plain – and cheap – cheese quesadilla.) And Mexican restaurants are often a challenge because mole sauces are made with ground nuts, and often enchilada sauces have a nut contamination warning.

So the first time we tried the Cantina Grill, my son decided he wanted the pan-seared tilapia. I tried to talk him out of it, thinking the contamination risk was too high, but he begged me to ask the waiter about ingredients anyway. So I did. She told me she would talk to the chef.

A minute or two later, the manager was at our table, asking us about my son’s specific allergies, discussing ingredients, and assuring us she would personally make sure the meal was prepared safely. The dish arrived, my son loved it, and the manager came out another time or two to make sure the meal was to my son’s liking.

Since then, we’ve been back a half-dozen times, and each time we receive the same treatment. This weekend we went again, and again the manager (a man this time) brought out an ingredients list for the dish my son wanted, including all the spices, and went over it with us. The food was prepared perfectly, there were no nut contamination issues, and everything was just the way we like it.

My husband commented on how surprised and pleased he was that every time we go to this restaurant, we get the same attention, regardless of which managers appear to be on duty – they are all pleasant, concerned, careful, and responsive. We never get the brush-off, and the manager always comes out to talk with us personally, armed with the ingredients list so there are no mistakes.

The owners/managers of the Cantina Southwestern Grill have obviously figured out a key ingredient for running a successful restaurant: if you keep your customers happy, you’ll earn their return business. And when it comes to food allergies, taking your customer’s allergies seriously and taking the extra few minutes to make sure they stay safe will not only bring that customer back, but chances are good they’ll share their experience with other food-allergic people.

So guess what? That’s what I’m doing today. If you’re in the Layton area and want to call them to ask about your specific allergies and check on any menu items that might be safe for your family, here is their contact info. (It looks like they also have a Sandy location in Jordan Commons, but I haven’t experienced that location, so I can’t vouch for it.) Remember that accidents can always happen, and mistakes are part of being human, so there is no guarantee that your experience will mirror mine, but I still wanted to share this story because the employees at this location have earned my business.

Cantina Southwestern Grill
296 N. Main St.
Layton, UT
801-444-9898
http://cantinasouthwesterngrill.com/

The Importance of Being Vigilant at Restaurants

by Kelley Lindberg


In May 2011, a report called “Restaurant Staff's Knowledge of Anaphylaxis and Dietary Care of People with Allergies” appeared in Clinical & Experimental Allergy, the journal of the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology. The authors, S. Bailey, R. Albardiaz, A.J. Frew, and H. Smith, reported on the results of a telephone questionnaire administered to staff members at 90 table-service restaurants in Brighton, England.

What they found was pretty disconcerting. The good news is “eighty-one percent reported confidence (very or somewhat) in providing a safe meal to a food-allergic customer.”

The bad news is that at least some portion of that 81% got a lot of their food allergy information wrong on the questionnaire, which means there’s a good chance they’ll contaminate a food-allergic customer’s food anyway.

Here are some of the highlights (lowlights?) of the report from the journal’s website:

• 90% reported food hygiene training.
• 33% reported specific food allergy training.
• 56% could name three or more food allergens.
• 38% believed an individual experiencing a reaction should drink water to dilute the allergen. (Not true!)
• 23% thought consuming a small amount of an allergen is safe. (Not true!)
• 21% reported allergen removal from a finished meal would render it safe. (Not true!)
• 16% thought cooking food prevents it from causing allergy. (Not true in most cases! Some milk-allergic people can tolerate milk when it’s baked in foods, for example, but it should always be assumed that cooking does not render an allergen safe!)
• 12% were unaware allergy could cause death. (Eeek!)
• 48% expressed interest in further training on food allergy. (Well, at least that’s good news!)

This study is a good reminder that we can’t assume restaurant staff really understands the serious nature of a food allergy until we’ve discussed it with them fully.

Some of the tried-and-true methods for ensuring your dining-out experience will run as smoothly as possible include:

1. Checking the restaurant’s website for allergen information
2. Checking a restaurant site, like www.allergyeats.com, for other customers’ reviews.
3. Calling ahead and speaking with the manager about your specific allergies and what the restaurant can do to accommodate you.
4. Carrying an allergy card with you that explains what you can and can’t eat (and if you’re traveling, get an allergy translation card, too, from http://www.selectwisely.com/).
5. Informing the waiter of your allergies, even if you’ve already talked to the manager.
6. Double-checking when the food arrives that the cook prepared it safely.
7. Keeping your EpiPens and antihistamine with you at all times.

Many restaurants are really making an effort to accommodate food-allergic customers, so it’s worth the extra effort to find the ones that will be safe for you.

(You just might be a little extra careful if a trip to Brighton, England, is in your future!)

Touring Chili's Restaurant

by Kelley Lindberg


Every summer, I work with several other moms to arrange educational experiences and field trips for our kids during the summer – it’s kind of a co-op summer day camp. Last week, we went on a tour of the Chili’s Restaurant in Layton, Utah.

The main reason I chose this Chili’s is because I know my son’s best friend has been able to eat there despite his allergies to milk, egg, nuts, peanuts, and seafood. His mom has worked with one of the managers there several times, and they have always agreed to make his dinner safe for him.

When I called and explained to the manager Charles that we wondered if our group of 11 kids and 5 moms could have a “behind-the-scenes” tour of the kitchen, he bent over backwards for us. He had us come at 10:00 in the morning (before the restaurant opened), gave us a tour of the whole kitchen, had one of his managers (Scott) talk to us about what kind of training it takes to become a cook at Chili’s, and so on.

They also took the time to talk to us about how they handle food allergies, from how they separate their food preparation areas and their grill surfaces, to the menus they can show their customers. Chili’s actually has a whole set of allergy information on their website – updated every month – that breaks down their menu by the 8 most common allergens. If you’re allergic to milk, they have a list of suggested items you can order. If you’re allergic to eggs, there’s a different list for you. If you have multiple allergens, it’s a little more complicated, because you have to compare the lists until you find items that work for all your allergies. But still, the lists seem complete and very helpful. You can download the Chili’s Allergy Information here.

The managers printed out a copy of all 8 allergen menus for each of the kids in our group (2 of them have food allergies, but all of them care about each other), and answered all our questions. We were all very impressed with how helpful the manager and his staff were, and how they really seemed responsive to our food allergy needs in particular.

There’s never a guarantee, of course, when it comes to food allergies – accidents can happen at any time – but it’s nice to see yet another restaurant chain really take food allergy issues to heart and understand how important it is to take their customers’ concerns seriously.

Thanks, Chili’s, for giving us such a great tour… and for serving us such a wonderful and SAFE lunch afterwards!

Caribbean Memories

by Kelley Lindberg

I’m looking at a photo of my son pretending to drink a “sandy colada” on the beach in St. Martin. It’s one of a couple thousand photos we and our Baltimore friends took while we spent a week together on a 46-foot catamaran sailboat exploring the Dutch and French West Indies islands in the Caribbean. We just got back a few days ago, and I think I’ve nearly gotten all the sand out of our duffle bags – but not out of our memories, like this photo.

It was an incredible trip. Combine two couples who’ve been friends forever, their four boys ranging in age from 12 to 21, a week of perfect weather (despite the fact that it’s the start of hurricane season… whew!), a sailboat, a million tropical fish, assorted sea turtles, sting rays, barracuda, a nurse shark (“No, really, Mom, they’re practically harmless!”), and a giant pile of snorkel and scuba gear, and you’ve got a recipe for paradise.

At least in my cookbook, that is.

We chartered the sailboat from The Moorings, a company that charters boats all over the world. One of the nice things about this company is that they provide you with a list of meals for the week, you select the food you want, and they’ll stock the boat for you when you arrive. On the menu list, I make copious notes about the food allergies we have in our group (my son’s peanut and tree nut allergies, and the other mom’s kiwi allergy), and they are pretty good about making sure the provisions they bring on board are safe. I always go through every item carefully to make sure nothing sneaks by, and if it does, the company is good about swapping it for something else.

We cook most meals on board, so that makes it easy to control any allergens. And when we eat at a bar or restaurant on shore, we can usually check ingredients labels or talk directly to the chef to make sure the food is safe. If not, I carry a load of safe granola bars as a backup plan.

We’ve found that as the years go by, more and more people are aware of food allergies, even in the more remote places where we travel. It’s slowly becoming easier to talk to chefs – they understand immediately the seriousness of allergies, and they are usually willing to suggest safe alternatives. And labeling is becoming universally more allergy-friendly, so even local brands are making an effort to indicate allergens or allergy-friendly manufacturing processes.

Things have changed a lot in the last ten years, for the better, making travel a little bit easier every year. Of course, I still have to read everything, check everything, talk to everyone, and pack a ton of my own food supplies…you can’t stop being vigilante, ever. But at least there are growing options and increased awareness.

And that makes me happy, because experiencing all the world has to offer is an irresistible goal for our family – and my son would rather live on two weeks’ worth of safe granola bars alone rather than risk missing out on swimming through tropical coral reefs and play peek-a-boo with a nurse shark. Me? I could live without the shark. But those iridescent blue parrot fish?… Never!

Etiquette Lunch – A Success!

by Kelley Lindberg


Last week I wrote about preparing for my son’s “etiquette lunch” with his sixth grade class at a local restaurant. I mentioned that I and another mom visited the restaurant, discussed safe menu items they could serve our two food-allergic boys, arranged for allergy-aware friends to sit with the boys, and had the support of both the teachers and the restaurant manager.

So, how did it go?

“Epic,” says my son. “The food was amazing – it was tasty and they catered to our needs. It was good to sit with my friends because they know about my food allergies and could help me.”

When I asked him if he felt different or isolated, he said “No.” All the kids sat in groups at various tables, so his was just another table of silly kids laughing and having a good time. He said no one made a big deal of his allergies or anything else.

I know that accidents can happen, and that the best intentions and plans can still go awry because of unforeseen contaminations. But teaching my son how to be prepared and careful will go a long ways towards reducing the number of accidents he’ll encounter.

That’s especially true as he is about to enter his teenage years (he’s 12 now). Statistically, the most dangerous time for food-allergic people is during their teen years – they are feeling more rebellious, more image-conscious (they don’t want to carry those bulky EpiPens), more peer pressure (“Come on, try it!”), and more embarrassed about everything that makes them seem different. And then there’s that whole dating and kissing thing – can you picture the enormous self-esteem it will take for a teen boy to ask a girl if she’s eaten peanuts, milk, or eggs before he kisses her? And the self-control to keep from kissing her if she has? Hoo boy. These are not years I’m looking forward to.

So all I can do is hope that I’m modeling the careful behaviors I want him to use when he spends more time on his own and away from his protective mom. This etiquette lunch was a good example of how a little prep work can keep him from missing out on a fun experience, or worse, keep him from interrupting a fun experience with a trip to the ER.

While other sixth graders were learning how to keep a napkin in their laps and which fork to use with a salad, my son was also learning how to keep from suffering a life-threatening emergency at a restaurant. Just a little extra sixth-grade lesson.

I can’t wait to see what new challenges junior high brings.

Navigating School Events with Food Allergies

by Kelley Lindberg


I’ve said many times that the older my son gets, the easier it is to manage his food allergies. He can read labels, he knows to stay away from birthday cakes, and he is perfectly willing to quiz a waiter or cook on ingredients if I’m not there to do it for him.

But that doesn’t mean we don’t still encounter new challenges each year. This year, for example, he’s in sixth grade. As part of the sixth grade curriculum, the students are learning about manners and etiquette. Tomorrow they’ll cap off this unit with an “etiquette lunch” at a local restaurant. Just picture this: 100 sixth graders are descending upon a restaurant, dressed in their Sunday best, with the goal of showing off the manners they’ve been learning.

Ugh. Sounds like the ragged edge of disaster if you ask me. But somehow the teachers have pulled this off two previous years in a row, so they are undaunted and confident that the kids will behave themselves and won’t devolve into a reenactment of that famous food fight scene from Animal House.

Of course, lunch at a restaurant sounds fun, but the food they’ll be serving is full of milk, eggs, and possibly nuts (this particular restaurant serves lots of nuts in several entrees). So for my son and his friend who both have food allergies, we’ve had to make some extra preparations.

I have to admit, at the beginning of the year when we first heard about this lunch, I and the other boy’s mom (Kim) both had the same first reaction – maybe we’ll just keep our boys home that day. But then we quickly realized that would make them miss out on an event that the other kids would all be looking forward to. Our goal has always been to make sure our boys are treated the same way, experience life the same way, and enjoy activities the same way as other kids. So we decided to see if we could make this experience work before we gave up on it totally.

Now the time for the lunch is almost here. So this morning, Kim and I went to the restaurant to talk to the manager. After some discussion, we came up with a plan – while the other kids are eating turkey and mashed potatoes with gravy, quesadillas, and dessert, the restaurant will cook two plain chicken breasts and plain rice for our two boys. Then Kim and I will bring from home some safe plain tortillas and a slice of safe apple pie for our boys. That way, they’ll be able to eat approximately the same things as the other kids at the same time, making the experience as normal as possible.

We also talked to the teachers a few weeks ago and requested that our boys sit at a table with a couple of their friends who know and understand their food allergies. The teachers were 100% committed to keeping our boys safe, and promised that they’d make sure they were surrounded by their “allergy-aware” buddies to create a safe zone.

So… we have a food plan, we have the restaurant manager’s support, we have the teachers’ support, we have allergy-aware buddies lined up to help, and of course we’ll have EpiPens and Benadryl on hand, as usual. And even better – Kim is going to be there as a chaperone.

I think we’re as prepared as we can be. Now we’ll just keep our fingers crossed that all goes according to plan tomorrow.

I’ll let you know next week how it went!

Happy (and Allergy-Safe) Cinco de Mayo!

by Kelley Lindberg


Hola!

Everyone’s favorite pseudo-holiday, Cinco de Mayo, is this Thursday! Because we Americans love any excuse to celebrate, we’ve co-opted yet another minor holiday and turned it into a giant beer- and food-filled fiesta! (Think St. Patrick’s day, but with spicier fare.)

Not that I’m complaining, mind you. I love Mexican food! (And the margaritas are nice, too.)

But while you’re celebrating, keep in mind that Mexican restaurants are one of the most likely places for a nut-allergic person to have a food allergy reaction.

Nuts, you ask? At a Mexican restaurant? Dairy, sure. Seafood, okay. But nuts?

Yep, nuts.

Mole (pronounced "mole-ay") sauces, a mainstay of many upscale Mexican restaurants, are wonderful, flavorful sauces for enchiladas. However, almost all mole sauces are made from ground-up nuts – almonds and peanuts being two of the most common, but not the only ones.

But moles aren’t the only culprits. Plain ol’ enchilada sauce – that ubiquitous red sauce that smothers enchiladas, burritos, heuvos rancheros, and just about anything else that comes on a plate, can often have a nut warning on the label.

So before you move your fiesta to a restaurant, call ahead or check their website to see if there are safe menu items for your nut-allergic family member or friend. My son knows to stick with a plain cheese quesadilla whenever we go to our favorite Mexican establishments, but that would never work for someone allergic to milk, of course.

Mexican food is delicious and often fairly easy to make at home, where you have complete control over the ingredients. So this year, consider turning Cinco de Mayo into a fun-filled family fiesta, with everyone joining in the cooking activities!

Tacos are super-easy (even for little ones to help with), and they can be made with any protein source you’re not allergic to (shredded pork, ground beef, chicken, fish, shrimp, black beans, pinto beans, etc.) a few safe spices, diced onions, tomatoes, black olives, lettuce or spinach, salsa, etc. If you’re allergic to milk, try Tofutti’s soy sour cream and Daiya’s shredded vegan cheddar cheese (also soy-free) for toppings (both found at Whole Foods and some health-food markets).

Add some safe corn or flour tortillas, or some home-made cornbread (use rice milk and your favorite egg substitute in the recipe – bakes up great!), and some fresh fruit, and you’ve got yourself a simple school-night dinner that’s muy bueno! And for an extra treat for the kids (and for the adults who aren’t interested in beer or margaritas), check the Mexican food aisle at your grocery store for some authentic Mexican sodas, in flavors like pineapple and mango. It’s a super-simple addition that can make an ordinary meal into something a little more especial!

Can Allergy-Friendly Restaurants Increase Profits?

by Kelley Lindberg


Paul Antico, a former stock fund manager and father of a food-allergic child, has written an article called “How Much Are Food-Allergic Diners Worth?”  In this article, Antico uses his background in finances to estimate how much a restaurant can lose or gain, depending on whether that restaurant is willing to accommodate food allergies.

His results are eye-opening for anyone who’s never really thought about the issue, and happily confirming for those of us whose “gut feelings” have been telling us that restaurants that aren’t willing to accommodate food allergies are losing a significant number of potential customers. And those willing to accommodate food allergies not only retain those customers, but they gain new ones who get turned off by the not-so-friendly ones. In fact, his estimates show a “9% or greater potential increase in business for an allergy-friendly restaurant.”

Antico founded the restaurant rating website http://www.allergyeats.com/, where customers can rate restaurants based on their food allergy experience there. The site lists over 600,000 restaurants, including many in Utah, although many of them have not been rated yet. In cities where a significant number of people have rated their local restaurants, it’s a great resource for finding places to take your family. In places like Utah, it can become a great resource – it just needs people like us to take a couple of minutes to rate the restaurants we’re familiar with, so that we can spread the word about those places that have gone out of their way to make our families feel safe.

Hopefully Antico’s article will get picked up and published by newspapers around the country. It clearly lays out the issue in terms most business owners understand – profit numbers. As more business owners comprehend numbers like this, more restaurants will begin to open their doors to families like ours. In the meantime, we can use http://www.allergyeats.com/ to start sharing which restaurants welcome our business.

Online Allergy-Friendly Restaurant Guides

by Kelley Lindberg


Wouldn’t it be great if there were a website that listed all your local restaurants and told you how they handle food-allergic customers and which allergies they accommodate?

I’ve found two websites that may help do that someday. But both sites will require help from all of us to fill in the information.

AllergyEats.com is a website created by a father of two food-allergic boys who got tired of driving around looking for a safe restaurant. So he’s created this site. It’s a database of over 600,000 restaurants all over the country, and you can search the list by city, zip code, state, or restaurant name. Then it will display all the restaurants in your area, along with any ratings that other food-allergic people have entered.

I typed in Layton, and got a list of over a hundred restaurants within five miles of my zip code (who knew there were so many!). But the site is new enough that no one has rated any of the restaurants in my area yet. So I entered a rating for Red Robin based on my experience there back in the fall (I wrote a blog entry about that Red Robin experience.) Some cities, like Boston and Los Angeles, have quite a few restaurants that have been rated. Other cities have no ratings yet (but you can still use it to find a listing of almost all the restaurants in the area). If you’re traveling, check it out.

The other website, FoodAllergiesToGo.com, also depends on ratings from customers, and so far there are no listings for Utah. It lists only restaurants that users have entered. But you can find a few restaurants in many other states and a few other countries, so again, if you’re traveling, it’s worth checking out. I entered the same Red Robin review there, so Utah should have at least one allergy restaurant review show up soon.

With every newly diagnosed person with food allergies, one of the first questions they ask is about safe restaurants. “Where can I eat now?” “Can my kid eat fast food anymore?” “I’m sick of cooking and I need a break, but where can we go?”

On the Utah Food Allergy Network (UFAN) email forum, members often post those questions and other members send emails with great suggestions. But only people on that forum can see the answers. These websites will make it easier to share that kind of information with people all over the state and the country, neighbors, tourists, relatives, and the newly diagnosed and desperate (we’ve all been there!).

It may take a year or two before enough people have found these websites and entered ratings before they really become useful, but it seems like a godsend for those of us who have to deal with food allergies on a daily basis.

So please, if you have favorite restaurants that have been really helpful with your food allergies (or restaurants that were terrible, and you want to post a warning), go onto both of these websites and record your experience. It only takes a minute, and it can help take the stress out of someone else’s dining experience.

Positively Red Robin

Last night, my husband, son, mother-in-law and I went to Red Robin for dinner. We’ve eaten there before, but usually my son has eaten off the kid’s menu, and we’ve asked about nuts and peanuts in the alfredo sauce and the chicken fingers, and we’ve been fine.

Now that he’s getting older (he’s eleven now!), he’s getting more adventurous and he wants to order things off the regular menu. My friend Kim had told me that Red Robin has an extensive list for allergic customers of what to order and how to order it, broken down by the eight common food allergens. Of course, we didn’t go by the house before deciding to get dinner, so I couldn’t check the list she’d emailed me.

When we got to the restaurant, I asked the waitress about “the list” and she told me she’d go check. In a minute, the manager was at my table asking about our needs. I told him, and he ran off to get the list, printed it off, and brought it right back to me. He told me it looked like my son could order the burger he wanted, just without the Red Robin Seasoning on the patty or on the steak fries.

So that’s what we ordered. In a few minutes, the waitress brought our food out, and said the manager was making sure my son’s burger was cooked correctly. Sure enough, in about thirty seconds, the manager walked out with my son’s plate. Then, several times during the meal, the manager and waitress both stopped by to check on us.

I have to tell you, I was impressed. I don’t recall ever getting such gracious attention for my son’s allergies at a restaurant before. They seemed to go out of their way to take us seriously, to do everything they could to help, and to keep checking to make sure we were doing well.

Meanwhile, my mother-in-law was even more surprised than I was. Not being around us more than a week or two each year, she is still surprised at how much effort it takes to avoid peanuts and tree nuts. She has seen me order for my son and ask about allergens, but she’s never experienced anything like the service we got last night. When she was raising children, of course, few people had food allergies, and fewer still would have known the first thing about handling them. She’s learned a lot from our experience. And as she watched the manager and waitress cater to us last night, she remarked at how much more aware everyone seems to be now than when we started this odyssey ten years ago.

What a difference a decade makes.

This morning, I sent an email to Red Robin’s comment section on their website complimenting the waitress and manager. I also asked a question that is bothering me. The allergen list that the manager brought me said that for peanut allergies, we should ask for the burger and steak fries without the Red Robin Seasoning. However, the bottle of “Red Robin Seasoning” sitting on the table said nothing about peanut contamination, and listed “Soy” as the only allergen. So I asked if the seasoning on the table is different from the seasoning in the kitchen, or if the bottle on the table should include a peanut warning. I will let you know what I hear from them.

In the meantime, I checked their website for the list of what and how to order for each allergen, and the only one they had online is for wheat and gluten. (See Red Robin's Wheat/Gluten Menu List.) For all other allergens, you must send them an email through the Red Robin General Inquiry contact form. Be specific about which of the 8 common allergens you have, and allow at least a couple of days to get the reply.

If you eat at Red Robin, I hope your experience is as positive as mine was!

Avoiding “Cacahuates” in Mexico

“Remember,” my dad explained to my son last week while we were all together on vacation in Mexico, “don’t eat anything that starts with ‘caca’.”

Good words to live by.

“Cacahuates” is the Spanish word for peanuts. “Nueces” means nuts. We practiced them a lot on our vacation, making sure we didn’t accidentally order or buy anything that contained them. We were having too much fun playing in the waves, lounging on the beach, and splashing in the pool – we sure didn’t want to cut any of that short by having to practice the Spanish word for hospital (which is, fortunately, “hospital”).

We did have one close call, however. At our resort, we ate dinner one night at the buffet. When we walked in, I told the hostess that my son was allergic to peanuts and nuts, using both the English and Spanish translations. She completely understood, and turned to tell another waiter beside her the same thing. I could pick out enough of her words to know what she was saying. They both nodded emphatically and explained to me, in English, that they understood, and that he would find many foods to choose from.

So far, so good.

When our real waiter arrived, I again explained to him that my son was allergic to “cacahuates y nueces,” tackling it in both Spanish and English, and he assured me, in very nice English, that he understood and he would talk to the chef.

Again, so far, so good.

At this buffet, you order a main entrée, then go to the buffet for salads, fruit, various Mexican specialties like fajitas and empanadas, and desserts. My son ordered the steak entrée, then we strolled the buffet looking for safe things for him to eat. The breads were out – no way to verify the baking ingredients. But the chicken fajitas were okay, the cheese empanada was tasty, and the watermelon was right up his alley. We avoided the dessert table completely – pecans and almonds were evident.

When his entrée arrived, there was the steak, a mini quesadilla, and a tiny rolled thing under sauce. “What is that?” I asked the waiter who delivered the food, who was not the same waiter we’d ordered from.

“Enchilada,” he said.

“What is the sauce on it?” I asked, eyeing it. It looked suspiciously like a mole sauce, which is often made with peanuts, almonds, or other nuts.

“No, no,” he assured me. “Nothing like that.”

“Are you sure?” I asked, “because he’s ‘alérgico’.”

He assured me again that it was nut-free. A little part of me still worried, but I’d told four different people now, all of whom assured me that they understood.

My son started in on the steak. Fortunately, he doesn’t care for sauces on much of anything, so he started on the side of the plate away from the mysterious sauce.

He was on his third or fourth bite when our original, main waiter suddenly appeared at my son’s side, and began whisking away the plate. “I need to take this away,” he said, breathless from having run across the whole restaurant.

“Stop eating!” I commanded my son, and he dropped his silverware and sat back, while the waiter scooped up the plate.

“I am so sorry,” the waiter was saying. “It was a mistake. It should not have happened. I will bring him a new plate with new food.” Within a minute or two, he was back with a new plate, new steak, and no sign of mole sauce.

The waiter was clearly embarrassed and upset, because he wouldn’t look me in the eye when he came back to refill our glasses with water. Finally, I called him over to me.

“Thank you for catching that. His allergies are scary, so I appreciate that you discovered the mistake and told us right away.” He still was embarrassed and contrite, but I could see the relief in his shoulders.

I’m a big fan of the “encourage good behavior with rewards” school of thought. I could have made a scene, chewed him out, or been angry. But that wouldn’t have helped anything. The close call and his embarrassment alone left a huge impression on him, and I know the next time an allergic person sits at his table, he’ll be extra vigilant about their food. I hope that by telling him how much I appreciated him being honest and fast in fixing the mistake, I left him with a good feeling about allergic people, and not a dread. Fear causes mistakes. I want him to care, not fear.

Also, I had made a mistake, too. I had a bad feeling about that sauce, and I didn’t act on my motherly instincts.

Next time, I’ll know better, too.

Fortunately, the whole story had a happy ending. My son loved the steak, I loved my mahi-mahi steamed in a banana leaf, and when we left the restaurant, the waiter purposefully caught my eye and said “thank you.”

And for the rest of the week, my son successfully avoided eating anything that started with “caca.”

Children’s Menus Are My Friends

I don’t want my baby to grow up. And not just for the normal reasons, like hormones, teenage angst, driver’s license agonies, and dating.

No, my concern is much bigger: I don’t want him to stop ordering off the children’s menu.

Yep, that’s right. I’m that shallow.

I like that he’s still 9 and still content with mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, and burgers. That makes me happy—and not just because it only costs $5 (although that is certainly a nice bonus). My main problem is that once he starts ordering off the adult menu, it’s going to be a lot harder controlling the cross-contamination with nuts.

After all these years of navigating kids’ menus, I’ve gotten pretty comfortable with where we can eat and what he can order. And the chance of cross-contamination is minimal – when they dump frozen nuggets onto a plate and microwave it, there’s a lot less chance that they will somehow mix with the walnut-vinaigrette dressing on the adult salad.

But now that he’s getting older and more adventurous in his eating habits (“Look, Mom, they have grilled shrimp!”), the possibility of his food coming into contact with nuts will begin to go up dramatically.

When he was really little, the only foods he ate were Cheerios, grapes, and chicken nuggets. Every night for a whole week in Hawaii when he was 2, I cooked chicken nuggets in the hotel microwave, cut them up, put them in a baggie, and took them with us to restaurants. He was happy with his baggie of chicken, and his dad and I dined on lovely restaurant fare in peace.

That was easy.

Now I realize that soon he’s not going to be satisfied with a hot dog from the children’s menu when he knows there’s a sirloin steak on the very next page. I guess I knew that this time would come eventually. It was too much to ask that he would go off to college with a box of baggies and a Costco bag of nuggets.

Last night, we went to a barbeque place for dinner, and I asked the server about the barbeque sauce, the meat, and all the places where nuts might be lurking. My son loves barbequed meat, so I knew I had to be prepared for him to tackle the adult side of the menu.

Then what does he do? Orders a bowl of mac and cheese.

Maybe I’ve got another year or two before my baby grows up, after all.

Living by the Numb3rs

I love the show Numb3rs. In it, an FBI agent solves cases with the help of his brother Charlie, a mathematics-whiz professor. (I love shows that make science look cool.) Several times each episode, Charlie explains to the other clever but clearly lost FBI agents (and us clever but clearly lost viewers) how some obscure but brilliant mathematical theory and formula can be used to pinpoint the suspect.

During these explanations, the scene morphs from a picture of, say, a tree to a computer-generated grid full of lines and vectors, degrees and measures, formulas, and arrows darting all over. It’s all very fast and dizzying as his explanation sketches itself across the screen, but in the end (even though none of the other FBI agents or us viewers actually understood a word of his explanation), you know that the case will be solved because all those lines and arrows looked pretty darned convincing.

Last night my husband, son, and I went to see a movie and then we went to dinner at a nearby restaurant. As we sat down at the table, my eyes darted around the table, over the menu, across the restaurant towards the kitchen, and back again. I realized that if you could draw my thought process, my brain would look a lot like one of Charlie’s explanations.

I’ve been dealing with my son’s allergies for so long now, that I don’t even realize all the calculations I do every day. But as I’m sitting down, I’m scanning the table for crumbs, baskets of bread, dishes of nuts, and other hazards. I’m looking at the menu to see how many of the items on it might contain nuts, to determine how high the risk of nut cross-contamination might be. I’m getting a feel for the overall restaurant – how easy the servers will be to work with, how clean the place looks, how crowded it is (calculating a risk of confusion in the kitchen), whether they have a kids menu, and what types of foods my son is going to be exposed to.

I’m assessing probabilities, calculating risks, formulating contingency plans, and estimating our best paths for success.

And all of that happens in the first few seconds.

From there, it’s a slower set of constant negotiations – “No, dear, you can’t have the bread because we don’t know where it was baked.” “Excuse me, do you put pine nuts on your pizzas here?” “Can you make my pasta without walnuts?” “Dessert looks like a bad idea. We’ll have some cookies when we get home.”

All of those constant calculations and recalculations, which seemed so overwhelming when I was first learning about my son’s allergies, have become second nature by now. And while I don’t walk into a restaurant completely relaxed anymore, it’s become so familiar that I don’t panic, and I’m really not even aware that I’m doing all those calculations. I’m pretty sure that if someone tried to sketch out my thought process on a blackboard, it would put some of those FBI scenarios to shame.

Math Whiz Charlie would be awfully proud of me.

Hey, that gives me an idea! Quick, someone call the producers of Numb3rs! I’ve got a great concept for a script!