Multicenter survey of restaurant staff’s knowledge of food allergy in eastern France

Background There are 14 allergens with mandatory labeling of manufactured food. A recent European regulation on the provision of food information to consumers has made it compulsory for restaurants to have a written document informing consumers on allergens contained in the dishes they serve. Objective To investigate restaurant staff’s knowledge about food allergies. Methods A standardized telephone questionnaire was administered to one member of staff at 100 restaurants in Metz and Strasbourg, France. The survey was conducted from November 2016 to March 2017. Results Responders included 56 owners, 4 managers, 28 waiters and 12 chefs. Seventy-four percent reported food hygiene training; 14% reported specific food allergy training. Seventy-nine percent knew about the European regulation. In all, 32% reported to be very confident in in providing a safe meal to a food-allergic customer, 30% somewhat confident, 34% confident and 4% not confident. Answers to true-false questions indicated some frequent misunderstandings: 25% believed an individual experiencing a reaction should drink water to dilute the allergen; 22% thought consuming a small amount of an allergen is safe; 39% reported allergen removal from a finished meal would render it safe; 32% agreed cooking food prevents it causing allergy and 8% were unaware allergy could cause death. Conclusions Despite the new regulation, currently eating out in restaurants does not put consumers with food allergies in the position of making safe food choices. Our findings also suggest the necessity for continuing to provide both food allergy and mandatory training and/or to incorporate such training into generic courses on food hygiene. Although the knowledge of the respondents was overall good in our study, certain gaps in this knowledge could be dangerous for consumers with allergies. We believe that the greater the number of trained staff in restaurants, the lower the risk of providing unsafe meals to clients.