Allergens 101: Do You Really Know What Your Restaurant Is Serving?

Managing people’s dietary requirements is a fundamental part of today’s hospitality industry. It’s a constant balancing act – you need to offer enough choices to please diverse palettes and accommodate dietary restrictions, while also protecting your business bottom line.Strategies to reign in the costs and time required to accommodate such requests varies almost as widely as the requests themselves. Many restaurants offer a selection of dishes that are free of the most common allergens, or that can be easily modified for a restricted diet. Some kitchens allow substitutions upon request or for select items, and sometimes for a modest fee.

Yet it’s increasingly common for restaurateurs to choose instead to institute a strict no-substitution policy on specific dishes or even their whole menu. Others have gone a step further and only offer only a single menu each shift or day, created and served at the chef’s discretion. In both cases, such policies control unpredictable…