Lawyering Sparks Indian Food Warning Cards with Every Meal

Posted by Baylen on Aug. 25, 2008

skitched-20080825-091326.jpgYou’d think that people with nut allergies would know to ask about nuts in food before eating–especially a cuisine (Indian, Thai, etc.) known to contain them. You’d think that, because that’s common sense, but you’d be wrong.

Managers at the up-market [Masala World] London chain, which include Chutney Mary in Chelsea and the award-winning Amaya in Belgravia, show all customers who say they have the allergy a 100-word health warning.

The card makes clear that while only some dishes have nuts as an ingredient, all may become accidentally contaminated with traces of nut in the kitchen.

It adds that the restaurant owners, Masala World, cannot be held liable for adverse reactions to its food.

The drastic step has been taken following a threat of legal action by a customer who suffered a serious allergic reaction to a dish which did not contain nuts in its recipe.

[...]

In the past, managers at the restaurants have spoken to allergy sufferers about the risks of contamination. Menus have also stated that all dishes may contain traces of nuts. But following the legal threat, Masala World toughened its stance, and even banned allergy sufferers from using its restaurants for a week while it reviewed its policy.

From this month, customers at its five Masala Zone restaurants in London who state that they suffer from a nut allergy are being asked by managers to read the cards.

The group’s other three restaurants are in the process of introducing similar cards.

They state: ‘We cannot guarantee that our food is free from traces of nuts . . . therefore customers with nut allergies/intolerances wishing to eat in our restaurants do so entirely at their own risk.’

The Daily Mail has more.

Tagged: , , ,

  • isshinglescontagious
    An Allergy is a disorder of the immune system often also referred to as atopy. Some receipes is useful for some people, but not all.
  • Most of the indian food receipes contains nuts in one or the other way. This is not at all suitable to those who have nut allergy. So for all those who have such kind of allergy-beware of indian food.
  • Patients with nut allergy finds very difficult to prevent allergy when eating outside as most of the dishes contains traces of nuts. So better eat home made food.
  • Actually I also have nut allergy, so i avoid eating in indian or thai restaurant which any food can be contaminated in the kitchen. I generally go for mexican or chinese where peanut are not used in food so I have no fear of consuming peanut accidently
  • albatross
    Actually, this is the kind of straight answer you'd like to get from the cook/waiter/manager. My son has a peanut allergy, and I really appreciated it when the manager of a restaurant more or less said what's on the card to me: We'll do our best, but we're not set up to keep everything with peanuts segregated from the rest of the food, so there's a risk of getting cross-contamination.

    It's *way* too common to have a waitress or waiter just casually say "no, I don't think there are any peanuts in there" without giving any thought to the answer. I don't like endless proliferation of warning labels and lawyer-written notices, but getting some kind of straight answer from the restaurant staff, when they really can't avoid getting peanuts in your food, is worth a lot.
blog comments powered by Disqus