Food Protection Trends - September/October 2016 - 376

related to food allergies in their employee training sessions. Common topics included identifying ingredients in menu items and notifying a manager when customers request allergen-free orders. Such training is essential for restaurant employees to manage food items that are or contain food allergens, and to teach them to recognize the signs of allergic reactions (4). Managers of chain restaurants (n = 8) or independent restaurants located in chain hotels (n = 2) were more likely to have received training and to have access to educational materials than managers of independent restaurants. These findings were consistent with results of previous studies that chain-restaurant managers were more likely to include food allergy topics as part of training and were more aware of potential issues (27). In addition, managers with a degree in hospitality management or a culinary background had learned about food allergies from the ServSafe® certification course or other food safety-related courses. Common topics of food allergy training included "major food allergens," "cross- contamination (cross-contact)," and "how to handle allergy reaction." Specifically, one chain restaurant required all managers to be certified in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and to learn about food allergies through CPR trainings. Although most participants had taken food allergy training, two participants indicated that they had not received any. In previous studies, a number of barriers to providing food allergy training were identified, including the high cost of training, high labor-turnover rate, time constraints, language barriers, and lack of interest in implementing food allergy training (1, 27). In this study, few managers had provided their staff with a specific and separate training session about food allergies, because they felt that food allergies hadn't affected their business enough. Typical food allergy training topics related to communicating with customers with food allergies are listed in Table 3. Some of the key points were: (a) getting management involved if servers were not entirely comfortable with handling the allergen-free requests; Table 3. Food allergy training related to communication Topics about communication Selected quotes "If someone has a food allergy, tell them that we will try to accommodate them as best as possible. First thing they have to do is notify their manager." Get manager or supervisor involved "Usually if the employee for some reason is not a 100% comfortable a supervisor or manager steps in with the conversation and as I said once the word allergy is used management is involved as well as the executive chef and the expeditor." Establish clear and open communication "I mean I think the biggest thing that we do train them with is asking lot of questions and keeping the you know keeping the lines of communication very clear and open between the guests, the servers, the kitchen and you know everybody who is involved and making sure the food goes out you know how it needs to be." Ask questions of chef "It's a learning process and we don't all have a full culinary background but they ask a lot of questions, you know, we have a good relationship with the back of house so they can easily go the chef and ask the chef any questions." Listen to cue words "We train them on questions to ask, listening for cue words when people are talking." "I tell them that we need to be very willing to listen. When somebody gives us any directions about food allergies, we need to pay attention to what they are saying and take as much information on their notepad." Be willing to listen "Whatever the information so that when they communicate with me and when I talk to the guest and when we communicate with the kitchen don't have any mishaps of communication. So we can deliver the food the way it's supposed to be delivered." 376 Food Protection Trends September/October

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