Catering Training

We are developing a comprehensive food allergy training scheme for the catering industry, suitable for all food businesses, regardless of size, service style or location. Online and interactive, it will draw on real life examples to offer a learning programme that reflects the practical and realistic needs of the food industry and the allergic community.

Through research of existing allergen training programmes already available, we know the standard of allergy training varies wildly. From our investigations, we have found that 87% of existing programmes have errors, inaccuracies and omissions. For someone living with a life-threatening food allergy, this lack of high quality training could result in mistakes being made with fatal consequences.

As a patient charity and one of the UK’s leading experts in allergy, we continuously listen to and monitor the needs and experiences of the allergic community. With this insight and expertise, we are building a robust programme of bitesize training modules to improve food allergy knowledge and awareness, to reduce the risk of harm to people living with food allergy.

The introduction of this programme is integral to our Patient Charter aims of:

  • The right to clear and accurate information needed to make safe food choices to confidently eat out of home without fear of allergic reaction
  • The right to live without fear of discrimination, exclusion or prejudice
  • Promotion of a better awareness and understanding of allergy

We aim to start piloting the programme from early 2025.

If you would like to find out more, please contact us at endorsements@allergyuk.org

Did you know...

  • 94%

    of parents/carers

    of children with food allergy feel anxious when dining out or attending events because of their child’s allergy (Allergy UK, Food Allergy Survey 2023)

  • 87%

    of adults

    with food allergy would be more at ease dining at a food retailer or restaurant if they were certified by an allergy awareness catering training programme (Allergy UK, Food Allergy Survey 2023)

  • 49%

    of catering businesses

    have not completed any allergy training (FSA, 2022)

Quote

“The lack of understanding of the severity of allergies by people working in the food industry is terrifying. Each time I eat out I always make staff aware of my food allergies, but they do not appear to understand the severity of this. As a result, I feel embarrassed and like I am wasting my time. I spend the time eating the meal on edge and in fear of a reaction. I also find allergy information, particularly at cafes/restaurants very inaccessible. This makes me feel like an inconvenience to staff. If they labelled things correctly on packaging and menus this would be avoided, and I would feel 'normal' and not singled out when eating out” (Allergy UK, Food Allergy Survey 2023)

Get in touch to find out more