Concerned by a rise in food allergies, Massachusetts health authorities plan this summer to start requiring that restaurant staff and their menus address diners’ potential adverse reactions to nuts, dairy products, and other ingredients that can make pulses race and lungs tighten.
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Under regulations unveiled yesterday by the state Department of Public Health, thousands of restaurant workers would undergo training and then return to their kitchens, sharing lessons on how to prevent dishes from being contaminated with allergy-inducing ingredients. Every menu in the state would be emblazoned with this admonition: “Before placing your order, please inform your server if a person in your party has a food allergy.’’
Statistics suggest servers could be hearing that a lot. It is estimated that 12 million Americans suffer from food allergies, spawning as many as 125,000 emergency room visits a year, and, on rare occasions, deaths.
For reasons that remain murky, the prevalence of those conditions appears to be increasing. Diagnoses of peanut allergies in children, for instance, doubled in a recent five-year period.
Now, Massachusetts stands at the vanguard of a movement to reduce allergic reactions caused by restaurant fare.
“We’re hoping that other states will follow the model that’s being set in Massachusetts,’’ said Chris Weiss, vice president of advocacy and government relations at the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network. “If you look at the research we’ve done on food allergy fatalities, just about half were the result of food served by a restaurant or some sort of a food-service establishment.’’
By Boston Globe.
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