Topic 2 Good Practices to Prevent Food Allergies in Different Environments
Mealtime is one of the best moments to spend with family and friends: but what happens if someone is allergic? Great care must be taken to protect the affected person and create the most comfortable situation possible. When preparing the food of a person with allergies, it is compulsory to adopt special hygienic-sanitary rules and scrupulous procedural precautions during meal preparation.
After deciding the menu, the first step is to carefully read the food labels of the ingredients. If no allergen traces are listed on the labels, we can proceed to meal preparation.
Suggestions: great attention must be paid to condiments and other kind of seasoning, because they may contain ingredients such as milk, egg, wheat even in a hidden way (for example, natural flavours, caramel flavour, lactoglobulin are items that indicate or could indicate the presence of milk derivatives).
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- It is always better to prepare the “special meal” first
- Hands and work surfaces must be washed thoroughly before and after handling food
- Foods must be cooked separately (especially in cases where unintentional cross-contamination may occur, for example in the oven)
- Clean dishes and utensils or, even better, a separate set exclusively dedicated to the preparation of special meals must be used
- If wooden spoons and/or cutting boards are used, they should only be used for the preparation of special meals to avoid unintentional contamination
- When frying, oil already cooked for other floured or breaded foods must not be reused; various seed and peanut oils should be avoided in preference of extra virgin olive oil or corn or sunflower oil
- In refrigerators, special meals should be stored separately from the others
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Allergic people need to be extra careful when eating in restaurants. Waiters (and sometimes kitchen staff) may not always know the ingredients of every dish on the menu. Depending on their sensitivity, even just walking into a kitchen or a restaurant can cause an allergic reaction to some people.
When eating outside, it is advisable to check the ingredient list every time. Each public space providing food has a compulsory obligation to show the ingredients and allergens for each dish in their menu.
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When a person affected by allergy eats at the restaurant, they need to discuss about cross-contact with one of the restaurant employees. Even though food allergies are commonly understood, the term cross-contact is fairly new. The restaurant staff may know the term and how to safely prepare an allergen-free meal, but this term is still not universally used in the food service industry. The commonly used term is cross-contamination.
Cross-contamination is a common factor in the cause of foodborne illnesses. Microorganisms such as bacteria and viruses from different sources can contaminate foods during preparation and storage. Proper cooking of the contaminated food will, in most cases, reduce or eliminate the chances of a foodborne illness.
Cross-contact occurs when an allergen is inadvertently transferred from a food containing an allergen to a food that does not contain the allergen. Cooking does not reduce or eliminate the chances of a person with a food allergy having a reaction to the food eaten.
A knife used to spread peanut butter is only wiped off before being used again to spread jam. There could be enough peanut protein remaining on the knife to cause a reaction in a person who has peanut allergy. All equipment and utensils must be cleaned with hot, soapy water before being used to prepare allergen-free food. Even a trace of food on a spoon or spatula that is invisible to the eye can cause an allergic reaction.
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It is necessary to agree the appropriate hygiene rules to be adopted and to give the key guidelines for School food facilities. Parents of children with allergies must provide the school a medical certificate issued by the allergist or the doctor, stating in detail the type of allergy their child suffers from, its symptoms and how an anaphylactic reaction could occur. The parents also must state the name of any life-saving medication to be administered during school hours, the dosage and how to administer it. At the same time, parents must provide a written intervention plan containing the symptoms and medications to be used in case of a reaction. They must also provide the school any medications to be given to the child in case of accidental exposure to the allergen. Finally, parents must provide a document in which they authorise the teaching and non-teaching staff to provide the necessary medicines in the manner prescribed by the doctor, with particular reference to self-injected adrenaline in case of an anaphylactic reaction.
- All children have to wash their hands and mouths after each meal with water and the specific soap (some types may contain allergens)
- The meals and food have to be consumed only specific areas (such as dining room) and kept clean by the cleaning staff
- The school staff must be aware of the allergic student
- The allergic student must eat their own meal properly cooked and avoid certain ingredients
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