Educating foodservice chefs and staff about food allergies and intolerances
Making sure your food is safe for customers with food allergies and intolerances to eat has never been more important. Diagnoses of both food allergies and intolerances are on the rise - these can cause severe reactions and in the case of an anaphylactic response to a food allergy can even be life-threatening.
For the past few years the National Allergy Strategy has been developing a series of online education programs to train foodservice workers across the preparation and provision of food for people with food allergies. To find out more we spoke to National Allergy Strategy Coordinator Sandra Vale.
Sandra Vale
“All About Allergens, our first course for foodservice, was released in 2017 and aimed at both back and front of house staff. In 2019 we released the follow-up course, All About Allergens: The Next Step which targets cooks and chefs. In both cases the aim is to assist in making foodservice businesses safer for customers with food allergies.
“What we wanted to focus on were issues around preparing food, storing food and the importance of good lines of communication between the chef and the front of house staff”
“It can happen that the chef creates the right meal but somehow it ends up being delivered to the wrong person – so we looked at strategies of how chefs can communicate that ‘this is the meal for the customer with an allergy’.
“It’s really interesting to learn how some chefs tackle this – such as using different coloured or shaped plates, or little tags to identify the meal. The other important thing we wanted to emphasise is that not only do you need to know what’s in your food, it’s best to keep it simple when you’re catering for a customer with a food allergy. That may not be as exciting for the chef, but it actually makes the customer a little more confident in the food they’re eating, because when it’s a simple you can see what you’re eating, you can ask questions and get a straightforward response. So we felt it was important to communicate that.”
Communication is key
The training also addresses some of the common mistakes which occur, as raised by chefs. “Garnishes are a real issue for people with food allergies,” Sandra tells us. “Someone else might garnish the meal after the chef’s prepared it and add an ingredient which the customer’s allergic to. So policies need to be put in place around who does what in the kitchen, and ensuring there are checks before garnishes go on, which of course necessitates good communication from front of house staff to chefs about exactly what the allergies are.
“We encourage the use of the Allergies and Anaphylaxis Chef’s Cards which can be handed to the chef - these are now available in various translations, so if you’re travelling or if you’re going to a restaurant where perhaps English is not the staff’s first language, you can actually take translated cards.
“Another common mistake to avoid is cooking oils and cross contamination – for example you might have a customer allergic to fish and you serve them chips that have been cooked in an oil in which fish has also been cooked. In that case the fish can contaminate the oil with the allergen.”
You also need to be aware of which oils you’re using – obviously you can’t serve a meal cooked in peanut oil to someone with a peanut allergy. And don’t forget about the ingredients in gravies and sauces – you need to really knowing what’s in them before you put them on a meal, if not you should leave them off.
The training also highlights some often-overlooked sources of food allergy contamination: while cross-contamination of food surfaces is fairly widely understood, how many people think about the use of tea towels? “Often chefs have a tea towel tucked into their apron or flung over their shoulder while they’re preparing food and that’s actually a big cross-contamination risk,” Sandra points out. “It’s very important that you go and wash your hands rather than just wiping them on a tea towel. Similarly with buffet dining – where the customer often uses tongs which have been used by others.”
For more information about the training program visit foodallergytraining.org.au
Educating the foodservice industry on gluten free food
Over the past few years, Coeliac Australia – the national registered charity supporting Australians with coeliac disease, an autoimmune condition triggered by dietary gluten – has been focused on educating the foodservice industry, including partnering with Nestlé Professional to create its Practical Guide to Gluten Free food. They have also developed an accreditation program for foodservice establishments who are delivering genuinely gluten free meals which is currently at 73 accredited sites and growing.
“People who need to make sure their food is gluten free will travel further to get it and will be a loyal customer base to your business.”
Maria Jönsson - Coeliac Australia Partnerships Liaison Coordinator
A 2018 national Coeliac Australia eating out survey showed 99 per cent of gluten free customers are very likely to return to a venue following a good gluten-free dining experience. “People who need to make sure their food is gluten free will travel further to get it and will be a loyal customer base to your business,” points out Coeliac Australia Partnerships Liaison Coordinator Maria Jönsson. “We’re very close to having sites accredited in all states of Australia, having recently launched our first ever accredited venues in South Australia. We have a real mix of businesses, from breakfast bars to burger joints, pasta places, Indian restaurants, bakeries and even pizza.
“One of the major pieces of feedback we get from accredited businesses is that they can’t believe how grateful their gluten free customers are – they’re overwhelmed by having choice, not having to seek reassurances from the staff about the food being gluten free, and of course not getting ill! ”
“Participating venues also report an increase in sales and expansion of their business to cater for the increased demand, so it is a good business decision. One of our accredited fish and chips shops in Victoria reached their summer trade sales before January. They had to put on extra staff to keep up with the demand, with sales up by 30 per cent as a result of the accreditation.
“Every single business who has gone through this process says they’ve learnt something – most of them are very confident going in and often only sign up when they think they’re already compliant. But we typically pick up some issue across each and every site, allowing businesses to make further improvements – something they’re very grateful for.”
Principles for foodservice providers to follow
Coeliac Australia’s audit breaks down its gluten free standards for foodservice providers into three key principles. The first is to source product from a trusted supplier – “someone who actually does batch testing and has done tests to verify their gluten free claim.” Maria explains. “We had one site that thought they were 100 per cent gluten free and when they sent their food to be tested, they found one ingredient they had assumed was suitable actually wasn’t.”
The second principle is segregation – such as making your gluten free pizza bases a different size to your regular ones, making sure they have their own pizza paddle, a different slicer and so on. “Visual cues which jog staff members’ memories can be a big help,” Maria points out. “Once you can see it, it quickly becomes second nature.”
The third principle is service – “have you got gluten free as a service option in your system, so it’s just a button you can press? Where possible it’s a good idea to differentiate the gluten free item with a different name so it can’t be confused with the one containing gluten. For example, gluten free fruit toast vs raisin toast.”
In addition to its accreditation program Coeliac Australia has online training courses for foodservice operators. Partnerships & Sponsorship Manager Andrew Logan says, “When the head chef of Queensland Parliament found out about our resources, he made sure the whole staff was trained – he said gluten free is our biggest dietary request and we want to make sure we’re doing it properly. We’ve had several places which have trained their whole staff and found it has really made a difference. All our accredited foodservice business get two free training licenses and they often opt for more so all their staff can be trained as well. It’s important that you get your front of house staff as well as your chef to undertake the training – there’s nothing worse for a customer than asking the wait staff, can you do gluten free food and they say ‘I think so’. They walk out thinking the place has no idea! You need that communication and understanding between the kitchen staff and front of house.”
“There’s nothing worse for a customer than asking the wait staff, can you do gluten free food and they say ‘I think so’. They walk out thinking the place has no idea! You need that communication and understanding between the kitchen staff and front of house.”
Maria emphasises finding food that is genuinely gluten free remains a major concern for people with coeliac disease when eating out – even with so much so-called gluten free on the menu. The 2018 national Coeliac Australia eating out survey found that only 10 per cent of respondents trusted a gluten-free claim and 90 per cent worried about falling ill when dining out.
“We collaborated in a study with Melbourne City Health, which over a three year period tested food from businesses that were advertising gluten free options. Gluten was found in a percentage of the food advertised as gluten free. Some was in small amounts which could possibly be attributed to cross-contamination, but in other cases it was at quite high levels, which suggests that even though customers were asking for gluten free, they were clearly served ingredients containing gluten. And then there’s the issue around reliable sourcing which I mentioned earlier. All three are concerns.”
Coeliac Australia’s Accrediting Practicing Dietitian Penny Dellsperger says, “There are also many misconceptions out there – survey results showed it is common for catering staff to believe that gluten can be destroyed at high temperatures, which is complete myth. Some businesses are still using the same deep fryers and toasters for both gluten and gluten free food, which can lead to cross-contamination. Training is the key to improving this – a ‘gluten free’ claim is a nutrition content claim with strict conditions applied to its use by Food Standards Australia and New Zealand. To ensure the health and safety of consumers, the provision of gluten free food needs to be taken seriously”.
For more information visit www.coeliac.org.au
