How to save time and stress with done for you allergen information
Are you, or your staff, spending hours on allergen information documentation? Does it stress you out, and make you rush the job? When we’re rushed and stressed, things often get missed. If this happens in hospitality, it could lead to a customer suffering an allergic reaction, possibly followed by legal action. It’s a legal requirement to have allergen information so what’s the answer? It could be getting someone else to do it for you. Here’s why;
Producing food allergen information is a chore
Since December 2014, it has been a legal requirement for food businesses to give information about the allergens in their food. Many business owners are still burying their heads in the sand and doing nothing. One recently said, ‘We don’t serve people with food allergies.’, thinking that’s enough allergen information. That business owner landed in court with a £2000 fine plus costs.
Pulling the information together
It can be a chore to pull all the information about your ingredients together. It takes time, writing the recipes, writing the menus, sourcing the ingredients, listing the allergens, training the staff, and so on, but it must be done. It is a job in itself to do it once, but it needs updating every time the menu is changed. Then you need to think about specials, special occasions, seasonal changes, …..
Making sure staff are giving the correct information to customers
Although it is acceptable to give the information to customers verbally, there is always the risk that the front of house staff will forget the ingredients, then they may need to keep running back to the chef to ask questions, causing more time wasted, and more stress in an already busy, stressful environment. Worse still, they might make a guess and give the customer incorrect information. It is also a requirement to have the information as a hard copy for customers to read, as well as making life so much easier.
Losing time and slowing down service
All that rushing around, against the clock to serve customers in a timely manner, can lead to mistakes and omissions, which have the potential for disastrous effects on your customers, your business, and the health of both you and your staff.
What if someone or a system could do all that for you?
What difference would it make to your business, if there was someone who could focus on producing the documents for you?
The chefs would be able to focus on their brilliant talent of producing wonderful food.
The front of house staff would be able to rely on the documents without having to keep running to the kitchen, getting in the chef’s way with questions and causing mayhem.
You would be able to sleep at night without the worry that the information might be incorrect, and someone might be sick (or worse). Or that Trading Standards, or Environmental Health could come knocking at the door with a complaint that someone had reported an allergic reaction that landed them in hospital. You would be able to dedicate more time to running the business, or spend it doing what you love, rather than spending your days ploughing through ingredient labels.
I can be that someone.
Less paperwork, more passion, peace of mind.
Paperwork takes time, takes the chefs away from their passion for cooking, causes stress, yet must be done by law. You want your customers to be able to eat safely and confidently, by having accurate, current, user-friendly allergen information. You need peace of mind that nothing has been missed, so no-one will be ill. That your business is compliant and your customers safe.
Who are Food Allergy Friends?
I’m Stella Holt, consultant, trainer and founder of Food Allergy Friends Limited, and Cater Allergy Safer. I am here to take that load off your shoulders, and the worry off your mind.
I am a trained chef with over 40 years in hospitality and a lifetime of dealing with food hypersensitivities. We specialise in delivering training, consultancy, support and done for you documentation keeping your food business in legal compliance.
Click the link below, or give me a call on 07759302881
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