Hi! This week, we started thinking of problems in the food allergy community that we can help improve. At first, we came up with many ideas, but had to narrow down to one final problem. We found that most of the problems we came up with, had the main topic of restaurants in common. Based on this information, we came up with the issue of there being a lack of restaurants trying their best to accommodate people with food allergies while ensuring no cross-contact between foods. We think it is important to try to address this because if there is a careless mistake that happens in the kitchen of a restaurant, it is possible that this mistake could lead to a severe allergic reaction or even death. After we came up with this problem, adults came in and talked to us and gave us advice on where to go with our project. This caused us to think of many more possibilities for problems and solutions than we had thought of before.
During one conversation with an adult, we researched a website for food allergy friendly restaurants. Once we started navigating through the website, we realized that some aspects were a little confusing and hard to understand the meaning of. As a result, we added to our problem that some of these types of websites may be hard to understand, and if so, some people can get the wrong idea about different restaurants. Now our main solution after the conversations with the adults, is to convince restaurants that are not currently allergy-friendly to change their ways, and become more allergy-friendly. We want to show restaurants ways that they are able to better how they deal with food allergies and how doing so can also benefit them.
During one conversation with an adult, we researched a website for food allergy friendly restaurants. Once we started navigating through the website, we realized that some aspects were a little confusing and hard to understand the meaning of. As a result, we added to our problem that some of these types of websites may be hard to understand, and if so, some people can get the wrong idea about different restaurants. Now our main solution after the conversations with the adults, is to convince restaurants that are not currently allergy-friendly to change their ways, and become more allergy-friendly. We want to show restaurants ways that they are able to better how they deal with food allergies and how doing so can also benefit them.
So far, we have come up with a few beneficial things that can happen to a restaurant if they take our advice. One is that the restaurant may gain the trust of someone if they believe the restaurant tries its
best to accommodate their food allergy. If this happens, that person will most likely keep returning to that restaurant and tell their friends and family about it, whether those people have allergies or not. Something else that can happen for the restaurant is that they can be placed on a allergy friendly restaurants website which can also get them attention. However, another solution to our problem, is to email these websites to change some aspects of their site to make it more understandable. We also plan on telling restaurants all of the ways they can improve how they deal with food allergies. Restaurants may do as little as ask if anyone at a table has an allergy, have separate stations and utensils in the kitchen for allergy free foods, and give proper training for employees in dealing with food allergies which could be done through an expert or an online course. One thing that they should know is that allergens can be transferred through steam and using a grill, and also how little is required for someone to have a reaction. For example, the allergy can be several yards away and not even touch the person for them to react to it. Some other suggestions that we have for restaurants is for them to have treatments for allergies handy, like an EpiPen, have symbols on the menu for different foods in a meal, separate menus like for gluten-free and nut-free, or have all of the ingredients listed for all of the meals somewhere if someone were to ask, and other suggestions as well. We don't plan on restaurants taking all of our suggestions, but we hope that they plan on using a few of them.
best to accommodate their food allergy. If this happens, that person will most likely keep returning to that restaurant and tell their friends and family about it, whether those people have allergies or not. Something else that can happen for the restaurant is that they can be placed on a allergy friendly restaurants website which can also get them attention. However, another solution to our problem, is to email these websites to change some aspects of their site to make it more understandable. We also plan on telling restaurants all of the ways they can improve how they deal with food allergies. Restaurants may do as little as ask if anyone at a table has an allergy, have separate stations and utensils in the kitchen for allergy free foods, and give proper training for employees in dealing with food allergies which could be done through an expert or an online course. One thing that they should know is that allergens can be transferred through steam and using a grill, and also how little is required for someone to have a reaction. For example, the allergy can be several yards away and not even touch the person for them to react to it. Some other suggestions that we have for restaurants is for them to have treatments for allergies handy, like an EpiPen, have symbols on the menu for different foods in a meal, separate menus like for gluten-free and nut-free, or have all of the ingredients listed for all of the meals somewhere if someone were to ask, and other suggestions as well. We don't plan on restaurants taking all of our suggestions, but we hope that they plan on using a few of them.