While I try to keep the focus of these AllergyEats Blog entries on DINING with food allergies or intolerances, our AllergyEats Facebook page is taking on a broader array of food allergy subjects, driven by our fans.  I love this, since fundamental to AllergyEats is the concept of peers helping peers.  And while I will keep this blog primarily focused on dining with food allergies (and the core site as well), I will continue to encourage users of the AllergyEats Facebook page to help drive its direction. I strongly recommend that readers become fans of our Facebook page and active in participating in and initiating conversations. This is the benefit of being part of a community such as ours.
 

Here’s a sample of recent Facebook questions asked and answered by fans of our page (though often I have to re-post the question so it hits the home page of all our fans): Read the rest of this entry »

(The following is a reprint of an article from the Daily Grommet that appeared on 8/2/10.  It can be found at the following web address: http://blog.dailygrommet.com/featured/need-an-allergy-friendly-restaurant-visit-allergy-eats/)

Need an allergy friendly restaurant?  Visit AllergyEats

by Tori

As families enjoy more free time this summer, they’re likely to be eating out, either in their hometowns or while traveling during summer vacation. Allergy Eats, a new, fast-growing, interactive website, is a valuable resource, helping people with food allergies find allergy-friendly restaurants, whether they’re dining close to home or hitting the road for summer adventures.

I recently chatted with Paul Antico, founder of AllergyEats.com who started this online community because:

“When I take my family out to eat, sometimes we have trouble finding restaurants that will accommodate my children’s food allergies,” [and] “I knew we weren’t the only family facing these challenges, and I vowed to make it easier for people with food allergies to find safe restaurants.” Read the rest of this entry »

I read a fascinating article from the Star newspaper in Australia (no relation to the Star weekly up here in the States).  It pits a mother trying to bring baby food into a restaurant against a restaurateur who says she can’t allow it due to potential food allergy issues with her customers.

Given that AllergyEats is a community of individuals dealing with food allergies, yet also a group comprised mostly of parents, I found it fascinating just to wonder which side our readers would support.  I think this could be a really profound discussion and strongly urge you to share your opinion.  Please read the article and post your thoughts by clicking on Reply or Comments below.  You can also share your opinions on our Facebook page, but I’ll end up re-posting them here anyway.

Here is the article:
 

I came across a great post about food allergies and restaurants in the blog of a website named Allergy Free Shop (www.allergyfreeshop.com). The article is quite extensive in its content, from basic food allergy facts to thoughts and recommendations for restaurateurs. I think it is a valuable read for those of us who live with food allergies every day, but I also believe it makes a great primer for someone not familiar with food allergies – a grandparent learning about your newly-diagnosed child’s allergies, the mom-and-pop restaurateur that just doesn’t “get it,” the school administrator who is in denial, etc.

Rather than take excerpts and add a lot of comments, I think the article is great the way it is and I was happy when the owners of Allergy Free Shop granted me permission to reprint it here. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s always a double-edged sword when I read an online article about food allergies.

First, the article itself can either be accurate and informative or it can be poorly-researched and a huge community disservice (we’re still facing the fallout of the New York Times’ horrendous and inaccurate article on research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association — for article, click here; for my blog entry and reader comments, click here).

Second, however, there is usually an almost guaranteed negative – the anonymous online commenters.  It’s so easy for cowards to be overly rude and aggressive when anonymous, a behavior that’s certainly not specific just to articles on food allergies. That being said, it’s probably a good thing that we know how a slice of the population really feels when they won’t tell us directly.

In any case, my ire was once again raised by reading the New York Times.  This time however, the content of the Times itself was not an issue.  In a Dining Q&A section called Dear FloFab, Florence Fabricant had an excellent answer to a food-allergic diner’s question.  However, the anonymous comments once again got to me.  To see the full article and comments, click here.  For the abridged version, read on:
 

Dear FloFab: My Waiter Joked About My Food Allergies

Q. For people like myself with food allergies, going out for dinner requires a bit more research, such as viewing the menu online and calling ahead.  I also attempt to choose dishes that would be easy for the kitchen to accommodate – for example, by leaving off the sauce.  But how do I handle a wait person’s rudeness when he or she tries to belittle my request in a loud enough voice to catch the attention of the rest of my dinner companions?  (“Oh, it only has a little butter – what’s the worst that can happen?”)  I’m dying for a witty retort, without having to lay out a medical explanation, to keep the attention from being on me.
Read the rest of this entry »

Pizzamarketplace.com wrote an interesting article about future trends in the gluten-free market according to Datamonitor.  While the focus was not on restaurants (it was about the growth in gluten-free product offerings in general), the commentary seems equally applicable to dining out.

While you can read the entire story via this link, I am including a few interesting bullets:

• The global gluten-free market is set to grow by $1.2 billion over the next five years to $4.3 billion by 2015 (39% growth)
• The US gluten-free market is set to grow by more than $500 million by 2014.
• The US will represent a whopping 53% of the gluten-free market by 2014.
• The huge portion of the global market attributable to the US is likely partially due to gluten-free fad diets, bolstered by “gluten-free celebrities” like Jennifer Aniston, Jenny McCarthy, and Elizabeth Hasselbeck.  (While I know at least the latter two of these individuals have been vocal about their gluten-free needs, they nonetheless may be inadvertantly influencing the public into thinking gluten-free is somehow “in style.”)
• The above, if true, is a double-edged sword in that the “fad” aspect driving gluten-free’s product growth will likely fade over time (meaning the impetus for manufacturers to increase their gluten-free offerings will lessen, though not necessarily go away.)
• Datamonitor suggests the market’s growth might already be plateauing (i.e. growth over the next 5 years might be less than the last 5, albeit still robust).

Read the rest of this entry »

Marketing Daily recently published an article (linked here) referencing a dining survey conducted by Market Force Information. Though food allergies were not the focus, I couldn’t help but get excited about their data related to the influence of online restaurant reviews.

“About half [of restaurant patrons] now indicate that they sometimes read online reviews and blog and tweet about restaurants. In the past 30 days, almost one in two had read an online review, blogged or tweeted about a restaurant to get a recommendation.”

Why should you care? Because restaurant behavior continues to be dictated more and more by online reviews, such as those on AllergyEats!

“’Because of the long-term effects that recommendations have on a restaurant’s reputation, a one-point disaparity in a rating scale can spell the difference between real sales growth and a stagnant business,’ stresses Market Force CMO Janet Eden-Harris.”

One ratings point!

The article also mentions that 13% of diners had posted an online review after eating out in the last 30 days. That’s an extraordinary number, in my opinion, because most of these 13% likely have little motivation beyond wanting to simply share their thoughts. In other words, most would not be part of a galvanized community, such as ours, that shares an additional incentive to post reviews (i.e. safety, and the understanding that we are all in this together). Read the rest of this entry »

“After recently disclosing nutritional information for every item on all of our menus, the allergen menu is a natural next step in our commitment to transparency and our belief that guests benefit from access to information about what’s on our menu.” – Mark Jaronski, Darden Restaurants (owner of the Red Lobster chain)

I must admit, it was driving me nuts! With new restaurant labeling rules included in the Health Care Law recently passed by Congress, why wouldn’t they consider allergen info as well? It doesn’t seem too onerous, especially after what the restaurants will need to do to comply with the new rules. And it could save lives! I kept wanting to write a blog entry about it, but felt I hadn’t studied the new law well enough.

Well, given the quote that I used to start this story, it seems Darden Restaurants agrees with me.

According to an Orlando Sentinel article published today (http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-red-lobster-allergen-menu-20100708,0,2547957.story), Red Lobster has “begun testing a menu that lists major allergens.” “At Red Lobster in Sanford, diners with food allergies can get a printed-out chart that notes the major allergens in its dishes. The information also points out items at risk for cross-contamination through frying or grilling.” (I found this last part particularly surprising!) Read the rest of this entry »

BOSTON (June 25, 2010) – As families enjoy more free time this summer, they’re likely to be eating
out, either in their hometowns or while traveling during summer vacation. AllergyEats, a new, fastgrowing,
interactive website, is a valuable resource, helping people with food allergies find allergyfriendly
restaurants, whether they’re dining close to home or hitting the road for summer adventures. Read the rest of this entry »

Our members have come through again! Given that AllergyEats is designed to be a community site, it is great to see members helping members beyond just the key task of rating restaurants.

Yesterday, an AllergyEats Facebook fan (Melissa) asked:
“Have any of you gone on a cruise? We are considering taking a cruise with our food allergic son, but I am afraid to take him somewhere that I have no control over what he eats for a week. I’d love to hear experiences on various cruise lines.”

The responses were great (so far!) and I thought it made sense to share them with the AllergyEats Blog readers. Feel free to add your own comments under Reply or Comments at the end of this blog entry (or on the AllergyEats Facebook page).

Here are the responses: Read the rest of this entry »