Food allergy laws enforced in restaurants

[Still Waters]

Restaurants and takeaways across Europe will be required by law to tell customers if their food contains ingredients known to trigger allergies.

Staff must provide information on 14 everyday allergens including nuts, milk, celery, gluten, soya and wheat.

The new measures, which come into force on Saturday, cover meals served in bakeries, cafes, care homes and packaged produce sold by supermarkets.

http://www.bbc.co.uk...health-30395142

[bubblykiss]

Are Irish babies included on that list?

People never Really want to know what they are eating anyway.

[danielost]

i can understand the peanut allergy, that one can kill. but, isn't 14 over kill.

[Imaginarynumber1]

i can understand the peanut allergy, that one can kill. but, isn't 14 over kill.

Not to the person that has the allergy.

[libstaK]

It makes perfect sense to me, although you would think a person with an allergy would be well aware of the potential harm and ask the question as well as explaining the repercussions to themselves healthwise in case the staff are "arbitrary" about disclosure aka: saying no it does not contain something because they think the customer will never know or notice anyway and the asking was just being pedantic on the customer's part etc.

I am allergic to nurofen and let me tell you, I repeat it again and again if I am in hospital for any reason, to every nurse and doctor I come across - just in case they use an alternative brand of the same medication that I don't immediately recognize, I am absolutely paranoid about it under those circumstances.

[Sir Wearer of Hats]

My old man's allergic to Heprin, which means he needs to wear a medi-alert bracelet, as the first thing paramedics do is pump you full of heprin.

His allergic reaction turned a week's stay in hospital to recouperate from heart surgery into six weeks of hell.

[Border Collie]

Are Irish babies included on that list?

People never Really want to know what they are eating anyway.

So, are you saying that people eat Irish babies and develop an allergy to them?

[toast]

i can understand the peanut allergy, that one can kill. but, isn't 14 over kill.

Its not just limited to the ppl those may get killed by an allergy attack because there is also the group of food allergy sufferer

who do suffer allergy attacks by some food ingredients and so do often suffer heavy bodily reactions, like pronounced dyspnea,

that require immediate medical treatment. By the new regulations, these ppl are able to judge in the first place if a specific food/

meal may pose a harm to them or not. Without that regulation, and its benefits given, a judgement is always based on a) the trail

and error method or b ), refusal to buy/eat a specific meal/food product due to doubts. And so there are also economic facts with

the issue as a doubt may preclude that a specific meal/food product will be consumed, so not bought, or (expensive) antihistamine

drugs have to be used in case of an allergy attack.

Edited December 14, 2014 by toast

[keithisco]

I can see this turning into a Litigants paradise, and a Restaurant's nightmare. My answer to this is simply to state that they cannot guarantee that any of their dishes do not contain any potential allergenic substances.

[danielost]

Its not just limited to the ppl those may get killed by an allergy attack because there is also the group of food allergy sufferer

who do suffer allergy attacks by some food ingredients and so do often suffer heavy bodily reactions, like pronounced dyspnea,

that require immediate medical treatment. By the new regulations, these ppl are able to judge in the first place if a specific food/

meal may pose a harm to them or not. Without that regulation, and its benefits given, a judgement is always based on a) the trail

and error method or b ), refusal to buy/eat a specific meal/food product due to doubts. And so there are also economic facts with

the issue as a doubt may preclude that a specific meal/food product will be consumed, so not bought, or (expensive) antihistamine

drugs have to be used in case of an allergy attack.

i am allergic to raw eggs. i can eat eggs if they are completely cooked. so i always get scrambled. but i read the description of said plate before i order. they usually put down what is in the plate if you read carefully enough. but i still say 14 is over kill.

[toast]

I can see this turning into a Litigants paradise, and a Restaurant's nightmare. My answer to this is simply to state that they cannot

guarantee that any of their dishes do not contain any potential allergenic substances.

Yes of course there will be an additional administrative workload for restaurants, maybe resulting in increasing prices for end customers,

but the responsibility about the foods quality will be, or will be given, into the hands of the restaurants stuff suppliers as lab analytics of

the stuff cannot be conducted/financed by the restaurants. I think that similar procedures conducted like in the pharmaceutical industry,

eg GMP (good manufacturing practices), will be established within the food suppliers industry in relation to the chain of responsibility,

and so an all-over documentation about the product and its components, very soon. This will not be a process problem for the suppliers

as they know very well whats inside the product as they produce it. In addition, the new regulation will give food stuff suppliers an effective

value added service to the benefit of their customers to their products as not only the quality of the product is mandatory, but also the

quality of the products documentation and the products documentation compliance to the requirements of the restaurants. As I said, its

like in the eg pharmaceutical industry. Means, if you want to make bizz with them, you have to comply to their rules. If you dont, you will

not make bizz with them. And as for the litigants paradise I would say that the suppliers legal departments will create the contracts in a

way that they cannot be held responsible at the end in case of an event as long as they can prove that the event was not caused by

intention.

[toast]

i am allergic to raw eggs. i can eat eggs if they are completely cooked. so i always get scrambled. but i read the description

of said plate before i order. they usually put down what is in the plate if you read carefully enough. but i still say 14 is over kill.

It isnt over kill at all and its also a very egotistic statement from you to say that. You are in the lucky position that yr allergen is

one of the listed ones but how would you judge if it would`t? There are millions of ppl who suffer the same allergic problems

like you do but resulted by other allergenes than fresh egg, so as per yr understanding these ppl should not have the same

option like you have to be able to determine if a food contains an allergen they are sensible for? What kind of logic is yours

exactly? I have no idea.

[keithisco]

If you suffer from some of these allergens then you simply adjust your life around them. Why should the vast majority of people for whom allergies are not a problem have to suffer increased prices simply to pander to a very small minority of people who do???

Perhaps these sufferers could club together and open their own restaurants to cater for their problems. I can just imagine how tasty their offerings would be...

[danielost]

how have all these people survived until now with out these new rules. we need big government to protect us from things that we have already been protecting ourselves from.

[toast]

If you suffer from some of these allergens then you simply adjust your life around them.

Thats only possible if you know where the allergenes are in.

Why should the vast majority of people for whom allergies are not a problem have to suffer increased prices

simply to pander to a very small minority of people who do???

How much exactly is "very small" in yr opinion? Within the EU there are approx 17 million ppl who do suffer a food

allergy and the numbers are increasing and not just within the EU.

Food allergy is a growing public health concern, affecting more than 17 million people in Europe alone. 3.5 million

European sufferers are younger than 25 years old and the sharpest rise in food allergies is amongst children and

young people. Furthermore, the number of severe and potentially life-threatening allergic reactions (anaphylaxis),

due to food allergies, occurring in children is also increasing.

http://infoallergy.com/tools-extras/foodallergycampaign/europeanfoodallergyanaphylaxispublicdeclaration/

And yr statement is based on a limited sense for causality. Its not about the 7 cent that you possibly have to pay more

for your Pizza in future. The new regulation allows allergic persons, as you mentioned in yr post, to adjust their life

around the allergenic substances and this will reduce the need for medications and medical treatments and these facts

are also subject to economic issues in the fields of health insurance rate calculations for the community. In addition,

sufferers who are not able to work due to an allergic shock caused by consuming undeclared but contamined food

do pose an economic thread as well.

[karmakazi]

Celery?

[danielost]

so these 17 million people can't protect themselves they neeed big brother to do it. which means there are 17 million people in Europe dieing from their allergies because government didn't care about them tell now. when are the funerals.

[Sir Wearer of Hats]

so these 17 million people can't protect themselves they neeed big brother to do it. which means there are 17 million people in Europe dieing from their allergies because government didn't care about them tell now. when are the funerals.

No, it means that these 17 million people stop irritating the staff by asking about every single item on the menu whether or not it has an allegen in it.

[DarkHunter]

Celery?

Celery is actually a relatively common food allergy in people of Russian descent. It tends to be just as strong an allergic reaction as peanuts.

[danielost]

No, it means that these 17 million people stop irritating the staff by asking about every single item on the menu whether or not it has an allegen in it.

what staff member would be irritated by someone asking what is in the plate. there are other people who don't eat some types of foods like pork. you going to list all of those ingredients too, now your talking about hundreds of lists.

besides this will not stop people from annoying the staff about what is in the food. i had a friend tell me, when she worked in a restaurant, people would ask what kind of salad dressings they had, and after she told them they would then ask if they had this kind. people are lazy.

Edited December 15, 2014 by danielost

[Likely Guy]

Celery?

Yeah, that's one I never heard of either.

As an aside, I was bored and eating a small pack of peanuts a while back and I started reading the package. There was a small warning on the back; "Warning: This package may contain peanuts."

WTF?

[bubblykiss]

Celery?

I know a lovely Mexican lady who has this. Prior to that I too thought it was a joke.

[keithisco]

How much exactly is "very small" in yr opinion? Within the EU there are approx 17 million ppl who do suffer a food

allergy and the numbers are increasing and not just within the EU.

This is a question that is very difficult to answer because different studies provide different results due to the diversity in study designs. A recent review showed most studies found that clinically proven allergy to any food occurs in 1-5% of the total population.

Recently researchers in the EU-funded EuroPrevall project looked at more than 900 published studies to access the percentage of people with food allergy in the community. The researchers found that if surveys asked people if they think they have food allergies, 3 - 38% answered yes, although only few studies had figures above 20%. However, only 1 - 11% of these people had their food allergy confirmed by a medical specialist. Most of the studies in which food allergy was clinically proven reported that 1-5 % of the total population had any food allergy. So there is a large gap between the number of people who think they have a food allergy and the number of people who are diagnosed as allergic.

Many people believe that the number of people with food allergy is increasing. It is also an impression gained by the doctors running allergy clinics that the occurrence of food allergies changes with age and varies across different geographical areas. However, we generally lack research results that can clarify whether this is in fact true.

Source (Food Allergy Information): http://www.foodallergens.info/Facts/How_Many.html

[Still Waters]

When someone's life (in some cases) depends on what food they eat, it stands to reason these people will want to know what's in their food. I don't understand how this can be a problem to anyone else. I feel for those of us who don't have a food allergy, we should consider ourselves lucky. I have a family member who has a food allergy, it's no laughing matter I can assure you and it makes me all the more thankful that I can eat what I want without coming to any harm.

I don't see anything wrong with this new law at all. People with food allergies have got to know what's in the food they're about to eat, that's pretty obvious I would think. Checking ingredients on everything at the supermarket is hard enough, but it does need to go further than that. People with food allergies don't have the luxury of being able to eat what they want and unlike us, they can't afford to take any risks.

[danielost]

When someone's life (in some cases) depends on what food they eat, it stands to reason these people will want to know what's in their food. I don't understand how this can be a problem to anyone else. I feel for those of us who don't have a food allergy, we should consider ourselves lucky. I have a family member who has a food allergy, it's no laughing matter I can assure you and it makes me all the more thankful that I can eat what I want without coming to any harm.

I don't see anything wrong with this new law at all. People with food allergies have got to know what's in the food they're about to eat, that's pretty obvious I would think. Checking ingredients on everything at the supermarket is hard enough, but it does need to go further than that. People with food allergies don't have the luxury of being able to eat what they want and unlike us, they can't afford to take any risks.

then they shouldn't stop with just the 14 they should have all food ingredients listed.