Being a caterer it is easier to accommodate food allergies and sensitivities. For the most part we get advance notice. However, I am particularly mindful of allergies because I grew up with them. I had a few that I “out grew”: a protein allergy to raw milk (not to be confused with lactose intolerance), chocolate and bananas. Those are gone now. Then I had allergies pop up that I didn’t have when I was little: seafood, peppers and artificial sweeteners. The seafood is the really bad one.
But, the big boogey man of my childhood was my brother’s peanut allergy. The neighbor lady’s opinion that it was a farce (she gave him some peanut butter candy to prove her point) almost killed him. He is not as sensitive as he was in childhood (when we were little trace transfer could have us in the emergency room) but eating something cooked in peanut oil will still kill him. Anaphylactic shock is no fun at all.
Years ago people (like the neighbor lady) were told by doctors that food allergies were a myth. If you didn’t have allergies you probably weren’t aware that some actual doctors didn’t believe. Non-belief was so bad my mother actually carried with her at all times a photograph of my brother she took in the emergency room after a neighbor kid washed his peanut butter covered hands off with our outside faucet and my brother came by later that afternoon and used the same faucet to splash water on his face, he looked like Rocky Balboa after a bad fight and that was just external contact. She used this picture at any restaurant we ate at to make sure the staff knew that she wasn’t kidding, and that a “white lie” for the sake of convenience could kill.
All that being said, from a business standpoint special needs diets are the largest growing market in the food industry. I read an article a few months ago that talked about it in depth. Keep in mind that “food industry” includes products marketed at grocery stores, etc. The restaurant industry is part of the food industry, so I’m not sure how this trend will play out for restaurants.
The trend is not so much due to growing numbers of new allergies but a greater awareness of them.
There is big money in accommodating special diets. How to tap into it in a restaurant situation, I don’t know for sure. |