Eating out with Food Allergies
We don’t go out to eat very much because of our son’s food allergies. Eating out doesn’t need to be a part of our lives, but it’s certainly a convenience for us working parents and it’s a social activity with friends. We prefer Asian foods but there’s usually a language barrier that reduces my confidence that our restrictions will be understood. I’ve searched chain restaurant websites for ingredient lists or allergy information. The dominant fast food places (e.g. McDonald’s, Burger King) are very open about listing their ingredients and you can trust that their robotic food assembly lines won’t stray from set procedures. But fast food isn’t really what I want.

Each chain handles allergy information differently, many inadequately. Chili’s, for example, has a PDF with an exhaustive list of what items are safe for each common allergen. But the structure makes it difficult to determine what is safe if you have multiple allergies. Outback Steakhouse has a “General Guidelines for Allergies” that is specific to nuts and dairy (gee thanks). The best method for a place that doesn’t want to list its ingredients is a chart with the menu list down the leftmost column and then a list of allergens across top (BK has this and ingredients lists). Each item gets marked if it’s got the allergen so it’s easy to spot the clear winners. Many places don’t bother with allergen info and I understand it’s a hassle and also a liability to put out a guarantee that something is safe when cross-contamination and substitutions can easily occur.

In Massachusetts, celeb chef Ming Tsai has been campaigning for legislation to raise awareness of common allergens in restaurant kitchens. His son used to have seven of the common eight food allergies. Restaurant associations are of course against any laws since they’ll come with the burden of potential lawsuits. Some places do train their staff and are very accommodating. It can’t hurt to ask when you eat out, but of course the best solution is to bring your own food and explain why. The more awareness there is for this growing problem the more restaurants will want to help out voluntarily.