31% of food servers unsure in dealing with customers' allergy attacks: study

More than half of hospitality employees worry when customers ask if food contains certain ingredients.

Just over a third (35%) of staff were able to cope when faced by a customer suffering an allergic reaction, new research commissioned by Fourth has revealed.

31% were unsure what action to take whilst 4% admit that they had panicked.

Almost seven in ten (68%) of 500 hospitality workers surveyed admit they require more information about allergens and nearly a quarter (23%) are not confident about advising customers with serious allergies.

The study comes before the implementation of the Natasha’s Law that will make it mandatory to list all ingredients on pre-packaged produce starting 2021.

“This issue is the hospitality industry’s cause celebre. It is clear, from the tragic high-profile customer incidents, the far-too-many ‘near misses’ that we are all aware of, plus this study and the inconsistent experience from venue to venue – be that a restaurant, pub, café or hotel – that action is critical,” Fourth CEO Ben Hood said in a statement.

One in six employees, meanwhile, claimed they do not receive regular training or updates about potential allergy issues, whilst more than half (58%) said they worry when customers ask if food contains certain ingredients.

Only four out of ten food servers knew the 14 listed allergens by the Food Standards Agency with peanuts (49%) and tree nuts (45%) coming on top of their most concerned allergens, aside from eggs (38%), cereals (37%), milk (37%), and sesame seeds (31%).

The software provider also cited a recent quarterly survey from CGA which reported that 64% of around 130 restaurant and pub executives agreed that addressing allergen procedures, protocols and staff training is either their major focus or biggest single challenge for their businesses.

Additionally, majority of the respondents said they were either confident or absolutely confident with their current procedures. Meanwhile, 19% claimed they have done their employee training on allergens daily, 18% weekly; 37% monthly; and 14% bi-annually.

Moreover, amongst 1,000 consumers polled about their thoughts towards allergens, almost nine in ten believed that operators need to be more aware of allergies, with two-thirds saying it is a matter of life and death. Whilst 73% said they were not asked if they had allergies on their last trip to a restaurant.