Until then get your comment in as soon as you can! You still have a chance to win!

Spread the word!

The Chef Upstairs in Toronto has started offering cooking classes for children. The Chef Upstairs is a food allergy aware restaurant that is completely free of peanuts and tree nuts.

Check out this full article. It’s great to see restaurants picking up on the need for specialty venues or even just being aware that a good portion of clients may have sensitivities and allergies.

• How do you describe your allergies to a waiter or chef?
• Are you sure you covered everything?
• After he leaves to go place your order, did you forget to tell him one other thing about what you can not eat?
• What if the waiter forgets to mention something to the kitchen or says the wrong thing?
• What happens if you are travelling? Do you know how to describe your allergies to someone in their native language?

Delicardo Foodcards can help you get through these situations. The Delicardo Foodcard contains all the information a food preparation professional could need. It lists the food you can and can not eat. It even tells them where these allergic reaction-inducing ingredients can be most commonly found.

Available in English, German and Spanish (they are currently working on a French version as well as other languages) you can order them specially for the vacation you are about to take.

The cards are available for just about any allergy or sensitivity out there:

• Nuts
• Celery
• Egg
• Fish
• Histamine
• Milk
• Seafood
• Soya
• And More!

Delicardo Foodcards are developed with help from nutrition professionals and chefs to give as accurate a description as possible. The design is made to be easy to read. There is an area for you to add your own notes or for waiters to add theirs.

Each individual allergy can be included on a card, or you can customize your cards to include as many allergies as you want to make a combination card. Check out the Configurator here. In the Configurator you can also add your own notes if there are specific foods you want listed that are not included by default. You can also include information about medication.

The cards are currently available through the Delicardo website, and pricing for packages of 10 or 50 cards is in Euros. We at Eat Nut Free have inquired if there will be a North American distributor, and we should have news about that in the near future.

Together with Delicardo we will be hosting a give-away of a 10-pack of cards. Depending on the response we may give away more! Stay tuned for details of the contest within the next couple of weeks.

www.lonelyplate.org is  all about getting the word out on places to go and safely enjoy your time out without worry.

I went to Disney World a couple years ago and they were FANTASTIC! We’ll be going back sometime very soon to reproduce the trip, pretty much exactly. Land and sea cruise/park package. Stay at Animal Kingdom and just soak it all in.

Ok, I’m leaving.

Wait, Here’s the info in this press release. Check it out and participate! Make this the Go To place for this info!!

PRESS RELEASE: New Food Allergy/Celiac Restaurant and Travel Review Website

WASHINGTON – A new website catering to the food allergy and Celiac community, www.LonelyPlate.org, was launched in February by Sharona Schwartz, who up until a year and a half ago was News Coverage Manager at CNN’s Washington Bureau. While at CNN, Schwartz produced award-winning television reports with chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta on food allergies.   She is also the mother of a daughter diagnosed with multiple food allergies, including wheat, peanuts, fish and more.

At LonelyPlate.org, individuals dealing with food allergies and Celiac can write reviews about restaurants, hotels, airlines and theme parks they visit.

“There are fantastic online resources reviewing restaurants and hotels, but because I couldn’t find any that consolidated our unique experiences in an easy, interactive, international platform, I decided to create an interactive database where we can review restaurants, hotels, airlines, and kid-friendly venues,” says Schwartz.

“Wouldn’t it be great to give a shout out to a place that did a great job helping you have a safe meal, or warn others of a place to stay away from at all cost?” Schwartz says.

Recognizing dining out for those with food limitations is an experience fraught with worry for many, Schwartz says the website will disseminate reports, both positive and negative, to families facing similar medical challenges. “This kind of information-sharing is crucial not only to keep each other safe but also can be a message to restaurants that we are a consumer community worth catering to,” she says.

The Examiner.com writes of the new site: “…what a great accomplishment for those of us on a restricted diet.  With so many people being diagnosed with a food intolerance, this type of website will help us feel more normal and stay safe when we are traveling and when we are at home.”

The web address is www.lonelyplate.org.

Contact information: info@lonelyplate.org

Link to The Examiner article:

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-15981-Gwinnett-GlutenFree-Food-Examiner~y2010m2d16-Lonelyplateorg-offers-national-consumer-reviews-for-those-with-food-allergies

Link to godairyfree review:

http://www.godairyfree.org/201002284124/News/Nutrition-Headlines/Lonely-Plate-Launches-as-Food-Allergy-and-Celiac-Restaurant-and-Travel-Review-Website.html

“Just to let you know, Pizza Nova is also considered nut free. Check out thier website. As well, each and every time I call I reaffirm. The last time, I was told that it has been noted in my “file” so that each time I call to order, the person receiving the call sees a reminder about the peanut allergy. While I wouldn’t count on anyone there to tell me if something has changed (it’s why I always ask, even though the answer has been the same the last twenty times we’ve ordered (we order a lot of pizza) it’s comforting to know they take food allergies seriously and have certain policies in place.”

As you can see on their website Http://pizzanova.com, the allergen chart outlines all the allergens and how they can be found in the menu.

Pizza Nova can be found in the greater Toronto area and surrounding towns.

Most of you know that ordering in pizza with a nut/peanut allergic person in the house is usually taboo. What made us think of the possibility was a recent trip to New Jersey where we found out, through the Dominos.com site (US company), that they were nut free (http://www.dominos.com/home/menu/allergen_info.jsp).

I picked up the phone and called the local establishment.  In a rushed voice the gentleman on the phone stated that it was Domino’s and what I would like for my order. I informed him that I have someone with food allergies and that I would like to speak to someone with some knowledge of this with respect to their food preparation. He then asked what the allergen was. I told him peanuts and tree nuts to which he replied that there was nobody there to help me.

I bid him good day and hung up.

I was not very convinced, nor was I very happy at how that transpired. I picked up my quill and parchment to draft a letter to Dominos Canada. OK, I emailed them.

The gist of the email was asking what their policy was, if they were nut/peanut free, and if their employees were educated of the process if there was one.

I received an email this morning stating that they were in fact nut and peanut free and that their website was going through the process of adding this information. To get more information I picked up the phone and called the author of the email. She informed me that the employees are supposed to be educated and trained how to handle these allergens and to ensure the public, when told of the allergy, that all precautionary procedures will be followed. It is up to US to make sure they know of our allergies. This will prompt the kitchen to take extra care.

This information came to me from the Executive Assistant of the President of Dominos Canada. I think I trust her.  So we can add one more pizza place to the list!

That makes 2 so far.

Boston Pizza

Domino’s

If you know of more please let us know!

Anyone who knows me well or even visits Food Allergy Buzz on a regular basis probably knows that I spend a good amount of time each day reading food allergy related news. I have many Google Alerts, sometimes more than I can reasonably read in a day. Early Tuesday morning, I came across this article–Food allergies: Tips for Ordering Meals Out–which contained very disturbing misinformation about cross-contamination from a restaurant manager. He was being cited as an expert of sorts on eating out with food allergies. The article also mentioned food allergy mom, author, and advocate, Linda Coss–she was not interviewed for the article, but information from one of her press releases was used in the article. Linda has followed up with the newspaper to correct and clarify the information in the article.

Here is what I found troubling (emphasis added):

“Linda Coss, the author of “How to Manage Your Child’s Life-Threatening Food Allergies: Practical Tips For Everyday Life,” reminds us it’s not only what the ingredients are, but what could that dish come in contact with on the grill, the deep fryer or the preparation station.

Pruyn agrees with Coss in respect to asking what’s in the food.

For example, at Maynards he said a server could easily go back in the kitchen and check every single ingredient used in the dish, including spices.

However, Pruyn said when it comes to cross contamination, customers shouldn’t worry too much, unless the food is raw.

For example, if a person comes in allergic to seafood and wants to order a hamburger, he or she doesn’t need to worry about the two being cooked on the same grill.

“The heat that is used is burning everything up,” he said, adding the same is true for the deep fried shrimp and chicken fingers.”

Just to clarify, ladies and gents, food allergens cannot be removed by heat! It’s not like cooking meat– allergens don’t vanish and aren’t “killed” once the food reaches a certain temperature. Soap and water is what removes allergen. That’s right, plain old soap and water.

via Food Allergy Buzz: Since When Does Heat “Kill” Allergens?!!.

We have come up with some standard questions we like to ask. Sometimes we feel the need to ask them all, sometimes we are satisfied if the management has a strong grasp without the need to ask all the questions.

It is especially wonderful when a staff member offers to give you a tour of a buffet or the menu outlining what is safe and what to stay away from. When someone suggests to stay away from something I also like to ask about the preparation of that dish, if it is prepared separately and safely from the safe dishes.

Do you have a standard list of questions different from what we have below?

The List:

This is a fantastic push to assist people looking for places to eat that are allergy aware.
Some points are that the restaurants are required to post guidelines on preparation of food for visitors with food allergies. As well as informing the visitors to inform the waiting staff that there is someone in the party with food allergies. Educating the staff about food allergies via video is also a new requirement.

There can never bee too much information about this and as we move towards making the public aware that food allergies are more than a “fad” and that there are peoples safety at risk this will help to ensure our families are better taken care of.