The Changing Food Allergy Landscape

It is no surprise that restaurants always need to be able to adapt.  On a frequent basis customers' tastes can change, the FDA can make a key ingredient illegal, or the price of food can make cooking a particular dish highly impractical.  These challenges can often be overcome by simple menu tweaks and innovations.  However, what happens when two of the primary ingredients in almost every dish suddenly become something that has to be monitored so closely that some customers will stop coming to the restaurant all together?

This is exactly what is happening across America lately.  More and more Americans are being diagnosed as celiac and lactose intolerant.  This means that executive chefs across the country must drastically change their menus to curtail the usage of wheat and milk in their dishes.  These two ingredients are among the most commonly used ingredients in many recipes.  It's difficult for people with both of these allergies to shop to find sufficient food in a grocery store to meet their dietary needs.  It is much harder for a chef to change the entire menu to accommodate this need.  However, if he or she does not, then the restaurant risks losing a significant amount of its customer base.

While this is a significant challenge, it is not impossible.  Chefs have already begun adding gluten and dairy free items to their menus with great success.  The key to this is awareness.  All menus include a small disclaimer asking patrons to tell their server if they have a food allergy.  By promoting awareness, chefs can adapt individual dishes to meet their customers needs instead of changing the entire menu to ensure that no one in the restaurant is affected by any of the allergens.  As allergies become more and more prevalent in the United States, it is important that both restaurateurs and patrons alike join together to promote awareness detail in food preparation.