Food Allergy, Massachusetts Restaurants

From The MetroWest Daily News:

A new state law, the first of its kind in the United States, requires Massachusetts restaurants as of last October to post notices on their menus, asking customers to tell their server if anyone in their party has a food allergy... As of Feb. 1, at least one manager at each restaurant must undergo online training in dealing with food allergens and get a certificate of completion from the state.

"It really is to raise awareness," said Suzanne Condon, director of the environmental health bureau for the state Department of Public Health. "It pushes, if you will, that dialogue between the consumer and the food establishment themselves."

The state worked with both food allergy advocates and food industry representatives in crafting the rules, Condon said. The menu and poster requirements went into effect first to encourage servers and patrons to talk to each other about allergies right away, she said. "This basically puts a responsibility on both parties," she said.


(Read more: Restaurants getting a taste of new food-allergy regulations - Framingham, MA - The MetroWest Daily News)

This is more great food allergy news. The question I always hear is how: how do I start that dialogue? I spend a whole chapter of my new book Allergic Girl: Adventures in Living Well with Food Allergies discussing the HOW, with samples, practice dialogues and lots of examples, even how to salvage a bad situation (we’ve all had those).

Comments

Colette said…
Sloane, thanks for being such a great advocate!
Poker Chick said…
I read about this at the time - Massachussetts has mad FABULOUS strides with food allergies. Between how they handle them in restaurants and schools - they are a good role model for others. The more people are educated, the better off we all will be. And I still say replace all those "in case of choking" signs with "in case of anaphylaxis"!

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