Allergen training is nothing to sneeze at in R.I.

(Corrected, 10:40 a.m., Nov. 5)

A year ago, staff at Gregg’s Restaurant in Warwick, a family eatery specializing in desserts, stopped short of serving a chocolate cake to a customer’s grandson, who was allergic to nuts, because of the possibility the nut-free cake might still have been exposed to peanuts in the kitchen.
The customer, a grandmother, was initially unhappy about that decision, restaurant owner Bob Bacon said, but called back the next day to say she was actually relieved to realize that that safer course of action made sense for her severely allergic grandson.
Today, Bacon’s staff at restaurants in Warwick, East Providence, Providence and North Kingstown, already aware of the seriousness of possible allergic reactions to food, are in the process of getting training online to learn about allergen symptoms, trends, dangers, and how best to handle customer requests at the front of the house – and food preparation and handling in the kitchen.
Rhode Island and Massachusetts are the only two states in the country that have legislatively mandated including allergens in food-service training at restaurants, said David Crownover, the Washington, D.C.-based National Restaurant Association’s product manager for the ServSafe Allergen online training program. That does not mean restaurants have to accommodate a customer, it does mean “you just have to understand the issue and how to respond,” he said.
“Sometimes no is the appropriate answer” to a customer, Crownover said. “Not every restaurant can accommodate every allergen. Allergic individuals would rather know ahead of time than later [and suffer] an adverse reaction.”
Rhode Island recognizes different options for allergen training and the online ServSafe program is one of them, he added. Some of the other 48 states have legislation that loosely addresses allergen awareness, he said. But purchase and use of the ServSafe training course remains voluntary.
Developed earlier this year, and made more robust this past July, the training program was created for the restaurant association in partnership with Food Allergy Research and Education, based in McLean, Va., because 15 million Americans cope with food allergies, Crownover said. The need for safer approaches to food handling and customer service, plus the sheer potential to secure that part of the dining market, led the association to offer the program. The online training, which costs approximately $22 per person for an hour and a half of instruction in Rhode Island, includes a 10 percent discount for members of the Rhode Island Hospitality Association, said Dale J. Venturini, the association’s president and CEO. The group has about 650 members.
“The reason we got involved in it is because we want to make sure our guests are accommodated,” Venturini said. “They have all different needs and wants and this became very evident to us. Nuts, dairy – some of these allergens can be fatal. We felt it was important just understanding that allergens are very real.”
There’s always been an allergen component to food-service training, she added, “but it’s become more robust so we can reach more people.”
The online course includes defining food allergies, recognizing symptoms, identifying allergens, proper cleaning methods, self-serve areas, preventing cross contact, dealing with emergencies, proper labeling, handling and preparing of food and personal hygiene.
According to Crownover, the “Big 8” allergens include peanuts, tree nuts, soy, wheat, dairy, eggs, fish and shellfish.
But the subtleties of handling those things might be easy to miss, Bacon said.
For someone on a gluten-free diet, it’s important not to serve them croutons and to use different tongs on their salad than may have been used to handle the croutons for someone else, he said.
“The class teaches staff that: The least little thing can be dangerous,” he said. “The biggest positive factor of the class is awareness.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, food allergies among children increased approximately 50 percent between 1997 and 2011. In 2013, the agency estimates there are about 6 million children with food allergies.

The reason for providing the online training is to educate staff who, unlike chefs, are not required to have in-depth allergen training; to enable people with allergies to be safe and avoid getting sick when dining out because of an allergic reaction, and to capture that part of the dining market, Crownover said.
“Frankly, there’s money to be had in it from the restaurant side of things. So, it also made good business sense,” he said.
The training course is still too new to estimate how many people are actually taking advantage of it, Crownover and Venturini said. The restaurant association has about 500,000 members.
“It’s a small number” so far, Crownover said. “We’re just gaining traction.”
Venturini said she plans to track participation, possibly quarterly.
No lawsuits or incidents forced the restaurant association’s hand in deciding to offer the course, Crownover added, but the trend globally is that more and more people are finding they have some type of food allergy. There are some 170 foods around the world that will elicit some type of allergic reaction, he said, including everything from an upset stomach to death.
“It is urgent; that’s why we created it. It’s to help the restaurant community build customer loyalty. It was the right thing to do,” he said.
Venturini said the program is proving to be popular.
“We’re even encouraging meat and produce purveyors to take the class because the more people we can educate, the more they become aware and can ask the right questions,” she said.
Venturini recently advised a friend who was reluctant to speak up about her allergic reaction to butter to mention it to her server next time she went out to dinner, since not having butter was a need, not a simple preference. The friend did and thanked Venturini because the chef came out and wanted to know if the woman was allergic to butter only or all types of dairy.
“She realized how seriously people take it when they know you have an allergy,” Venturini said. “It was an ‘aha’ moment, and therefore when she spoke up she was well-accommodated.” •

An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated when the SafeServ Allergens program was developed. It was rolled out earlier this year. In addition, the number of children with food allergies in 1997 was misstated, as was the source of the information about the figures.

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