Eating Out with Allergies

Restaurants may be unsafe for people with food allergies.
HealthDay (4/26, Gordon) reported that according to the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN), as many as "12 million Americans" have food allergies; and the primary culprits are "milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish, soy and wheat." Although it is "easy to control your environment," restaurant food may not be safe. A study the journal Clinical and Experimental Allergy, which included "managers, waiters and chefs at 90 restaurants," found that although only 33 percent "said they'd had specific" food allergy training, "81 percent said they still felt confident they could provide a safe meal to a customer with food allergies." Moreover, 38 percent erroneously "believed that people with food allergies could drink water to dilute the allergen and lessen" the allergic reaction severity; and another 23 percent mistakenly thought eating only a "small amount of a food allergen" was safe.