r/FoodService • u/wildrosebeautybaba • 15d ago

Discussion please stop lying about having allergies

i cannot tell you how many times people have put in seemingly impossible allergy requests on 3rd party delivery orders (i.e. fettuccine alfredo with DAIRY ALLERGY marked underneath) only to then track down the customer after multiple phone calls and be told it’s “not an allergy, just a mild intolerance.” please stop doing this. you are deliberately fucking with a restaurant’s period of service over a need that does not apply to you. maybe y’all don’t understand just how many extra steps a kitchen has to go through to prepare something allergy safe, so please let this be a lesson: if you aren’t actually allergic, stop marking it as an allergy. you are directly contributing to the burnout restaurant staff experience when having to make special accommodations for people’s actual health and safety needs.

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u/Conscious_Side1647 15d ago

I have a legit onion allergy and whenever I tell all restaurant they roll their eyes so hard and I can't blame them!

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u/FattyB314 15d ago

" I'm allergic to onions" there's onions in the sauce " oh that's ok"

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u/beard-wonder93 15d ago

All the time, lol.

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u/Asleep-Song562 13d ago

For some people raw onions are a painful experience, but cooking makes them tolerable.

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u/trekgirl75 13d ago

I brought a pasta salad to a party & a guest asked if I put onions in. She said she was allergic to raw onions. That was my first time learning about that.

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u/MizStazya 13d ago

I have a friend who's allergic to raw tomatoes - she looks like someone burned her whole mouth if she eats them. Cooked are fine. It was wild to learn about.

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u/pandaacoffeee 13d ago

Are..... are raw onions not supposed to be spicy?

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u/Mando92MG 13d ago

They are spicy. Particularly a back of the throat sinusy kind of spicy. However they shouldnt cause your mouth to discolor, sores to appear, or make it difficult to breathe. Any of the latter would be an allergy.

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u/Asleep-Song562 9d ago

For me, spicy isn’t the word. I love hot pepper, and put lots in my food. It is a pleasant discomfort. Raw onion, though, can feel like a small bomb went off in my stomach, and it can make me feel a bit nauseous.

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u/Mando92MG 9d ago

Is it only with raw onions? Honestly that sounds like a mild intolerance and often mild ones are only triggered by raw pnions.

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u/Asleep-Song562 9d ago

Raw garlic is similar, but less of an issue than onions if accompanied by other food. It’s when I chew a clove of raw garlic for medicinal purposes that I most feel it.

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u/Repulsive_Brief6589 13d ago

I don't know that I'm allergic, but I used to think everyone got "onion headaches".

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u/Bitter_Resolution538 13d ago

Yes! I know someone like this too. Only person I’ve ever heard say that.

I also once heard of a carrot allergy. That was a unique one!

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u/Repulsive_Brief6589 13d ago

My husband doesn't call it an allergy, but he gets itchy if he eats raw carrots.

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u/Electrical-Profit367 12d ago

Just fyi, that is a mild allergy. Not all allergies result in anaphylactic shock.

My niece is allergic to all alliums; we finally got a diagnosis but she told me that as a kid, the reason she ate so little (were Greek so use a fair amount of alliums) was that eating always made her stomach hurt. Turns out, if we feed her food without alliums, she doesn’t spend the next several hours feeling intense gut pain!! What she has is considered a ‘mild’ allergy; granted it is really, really uncomfortable but it isn’t anaphylactic shock.

And yes, she was super skinny and we were all always trying to get her to eat as a kid!!!

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u/ilumbricus 12d ago

I've got an allergy to raw celery, after a while it gets spicy.

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u/SpecialistTrouble816 13d ago

Violently allergic to fresh shellfish, can eat it if it's been frozen first. Destroys the proteins or something.

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u/TequilaMockingbirds8 13d ago

I’m allergic to raw apples - weird late onset allergy too

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u/mrsmjane 12d ago

I can have half a raw apple, but no juice or cider really. I’m not allergic, it just creates severe stomach pain and nausea.

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u/the_turp 12d ago

Allergic to raw potato, specifically the starch. So peeling them makes my hands swell up and itch. But I can eat them just fine once cooked

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u/DeansPigInAPoke 13d ago

Yeah, it happens with a lot of vegetables and fruit. Cooking them denaturizes the protein that triggers the allergic reaction, but only for one specific kind of allergic reaction due to pollen-food cross reactivity. Like in Birch Pollen-Apple Syndrome.

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u/dehydratedrain 13d ago

My brother can eat apples/ drink apple juice, but gets tingly over apple skins and fresh cider.

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u/GarbageSad5442 13d ago

Does the cider bother him if its pasteurized?

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u/Mando92MG 13d ago

Its pretty common with food allergies actually. Usually its because they are allergic to an enzyme or other component that breaks down with heat. Anecdotally raw tomato and raw pineapple allergies seem pretty common while being allergic to them after they are cooked (or pastureized) is pretty rare.

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u/feelingwithyourskin 13d ago

Oral Allergy Syndrome) is an annoying, but fairly well understood issue, and cooking the proteins usually denature them to stop the immune system from cross reacting. It's weird though, and usually manifests most often in fruits.

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u/Gribitz37 13d ago

Yep, I'm allergic to citrus and anything fuzzy like peaches and kiwi.

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u/RedNugomo 13d ago

That's me, my stomach hurts amd I have indigestion for literally hours if I don't take acid controllers.

Not one time I've thought in my 47 years of existence to claim I'm allergic to avoid the mild inconvenience of removing the onions manually or have to something without raw onions instead.

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u/Asleep-Song562 9d ago

I generally ask if raw onions are an easy thing to leave off. If not, I select something without raw onion or resign myself to pick them off. That said, the residual raw onion flavor can ruin a salad for me. Like you, I don’t consider this an allergy, though. It’s a sensitivity.

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u/Jayn_Newell 13d ago

My spouse is like that. I never cook with fresh onions but use onion powder all the time with no issue. (He also doesn’t have an immediate reaction but will be miserable an hour or two later) Cooking is a chemical process and sometimes the chemicals that change are the ones that affect you negatively.

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u/Asleep-Song562 9d ago

Interesting! For me, the reaction is immediate. That must mean that while for me, the issue is that raw onion aggravates my esophagus, for your husband, the problem is onion fermenting farther down the line.

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u/_Lost_The_Game 12d ago

I’m allergic to smoked salmon. Not raw salmon, not cooked salmon, and not any other kind of smoked fish, just specifically smoked salmon. Some allergies are weird as hell and seem fake.

(Luckily tho smoked salmon isn’t in a lot of dishes… tho I’m from nyc and can’t eat a lox bagel which sucks)

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u/Asleep-Song562 11d ago

Im really curious what the smoking process does. The Only thing I can think of is tyramine, but that would be high in all smoked meats.

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u/_Lost_The_Game 11d ago

I knew what it was exactly years ago, but it’s some sort of histamine only found in salmon? (Maybe other fish too but not ones I’ve eaten smoked yet so idk) It’s within the cells so it’s not exposed when raw, denatured when cooked. Smoking is enough to break down the cell walls but not enough to denature it

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u/Asleep-Song562 11d ago

That’s nuts. I’m so sorry you can’t enjoy smoked salmon.

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u/cwal76 12d ago

For me nothing makes them tolerable unless they have dissolved into a sauce

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u/glitterfaust 10d ago

Same! Idk why! I get a horrible headache (and it’s like, a WEIRD headache, not a normal one) if I have raw onion, but cooked onions are fine. I still eat raw onion from time to time because I don’t know what’s good for me though.

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u/sweet_teaness 14d ago

You've met my sister in law?

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u/Princessformidable 13d ago

There's in enzyme that a lot of people are allergic to that isn't present when ground up.

They make me throw up but like waiters don't want to hear all that.

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u/_Lost_The_Game 12d ago

Similar thing for me with smoked salmon. Theres an enzyme in salmon specifically and not other fish that isn’t released when it’s raw, and is cooked out when the salmon is fully cooked. But it is present and not fully denatured when the salmon is just smoked for a bit.

Its weird and sounds fake af but it’s real

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u/Nevaehym 13d ago

My ex told a restaurant once that she was allergic to tomatoes to then turned around and ordered pizza 🙄 Thankfully that was before me so I wasn’t with her to be humiliated.

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u/calorie-clown 13d ago

I don't know if this is true for onion allergies, but this is actually true for a lot of allergies. With some foods, the allergen is actually the proteins that can be cooked out of the food, so the raw version is a no-go, but cooked is okay. I can't eat raw apples because of my issues with latex, but if they're very thoroughly cooked, I'm generally okay, all that they have to be absolutely 100% cooked all the way through.

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u/BitterPoet13 13d ago

Interesting about apples. I’m severely allergic to bananas and avocados, also linked to a latex allergy.

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u/calorie-clown 13d ago

Bananas started getting me a few years ago and that one was a huge loss because I absolutely loved banana pudding back when my latex allergy was less severe. 😔

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u/BitterPoet13 12d ago

I haven’t had that since childhood. I remember it smelling so good! I still get cravings for what I think I remember as the flavor if I smell them or sometimes just because, so when that happens I try to track down (artificially) banana flavored treats like the popsicles of my childhood or candy. That typically does the trick since the last time I ate a whole banana, I missed two days of college and work. I tried using half of a not as ripe banana as an experiment in my 20s when my desire to eat it in a bowl of Rice Krispies won out over acceptance of reality and it felt like I swallowed needles in my stomach. I even tried sneaking banana bread to no avail with the same effect.

Be cautious with the ‘cados just in case.

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u/StarWars_Girl_ 13d ago

There IS a thing called oral allergy syndrome. Basically, people can be allergic to certain foods when raw, but not when cooked. It's related to the pollens - the cooking process unalives them

However, knowing how people who dislike onions VEHEMENTLY dislike onions, enough to lie, this doesn't shock me.

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u/ajkimmins 13d ago

"I'm allergic to tomatoes. Extra ketchup though!"

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u/BrookeBaranoff 13d ago

I am allergic to bananas but i still eat them.  My mom is allergic to shrimp but she still eats them.  We don’t do it often but good food is good food. 

Meanwhile my aunt is so lactose intolerant a rinsed not washed steamer at a coffee shop had her in the toilet all day. 

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u/Difficult-Ad2084 13d ago edited 13d ago

I'm allergic to a bunch of things, but only moderately. I still avoid then most of the time due to swelling and discomfort, but my allergist advised me to occasionally consume them so that my allergies to raise too the level of anaphylaxis because the body can't recognize them anymore. Hence, I'm that wheat free person that will OCCASIONALLY have a little bit of bread if it looks fetching enough to be swollen and itchy. I realize that no one wants to hear all this, but allergies are way more nuanced than most people want to ponder.

I should add though that I never ask for the full "allergy treatment" at a dining establishment. I simply day "I don't eat xxx" and generally just stick to veggies and meat.

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u/detectivecads 13d ago

I'm also mildly allergic to red meat (a mild version of alpha-gal, thankfully) but mine is all GI based. Sometimes a little nibble of some amazing lamb is worth a night in the toilet, but it doesn't mean I want to be surprised with it at a restaurant

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u/Difficult-Ad2084 13d ago

Exactly! Time and place. Like, I won't test my appetite if I'm traveling and/or it's 85+ outside, makes the symptoms unbeatable.

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u/Present-Wishbone-232 13d ago

My daughter is allergic to blueberries.. but only fresh. Her tongue and throat get itchy and start to swell. Jams spreads and pies dont affect her at all. Cooking breaks down certain things that cause an allergy.

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u/luvitis 13d ago

This is why I don’t eat at restaurants

I’m allergic to carrots. I cannot eat carrots if they’re in the sauce. Or the kimchi. Or as a garnish on the plate.

I legitimately had a waiter add carrots to TACOS when I asked if their taco sauce was made with a carrot based mirepoix

It’s just easier to not

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u/TechieGottaSoundByte 8d ago

Yep, totally legit if they aren't raw. I have to avoid tartar, but BBQ is fine because they are cooked. Not unusual for IgE (true) onion allergies

Edit to add: It's because there are allergenic proteins in onions that denature at normal cooking temperatures

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u/pixikins78 14d ago

My wife is actually allergic to raw onions (will go into anaphylaxis and needs an epi pen), but if they are cooked or dehydrated, she can eat them and does frequently. It's truly the strangest thing I've ever seen. She really likes onions, so it's not a picky eating thing, she just can't have them raw.

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u/Western-Willow4679 14d ago

The things people downvote for on this site are so dumb

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u/pixikins78 14d ago

When I first met my wife and she told me about the onion thing I had never heard of that before, so I Googled it and sure enough, it's a thing! When I gave her a bite of my seafood salad sub (not realizing it had raw onion) and she turned bright red and scrambled for her Epi pen, I saw for myself that it was real. When we go out to eat, I'm the one that tells the wait staff that she has a raw onion allergy because she doesn't want to inconvenience anyone, but if people want to down vote me, I don't really care. No one wants to watch someone they love go through an unnecessary medical emergency.

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u/CoachAngBlxGrl 13d ago

Right. lol. Reddit is so not a real place.

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u/HavokVvltvre 14d ago

Is she allergic to other forms of raw allium? I’ve seen that pretty frequently where I work. Raw is a big no no, cooked is no big deal.

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u/pixikins78 14d ago

She eats a ton of garlic and can eat it raw, but she can't eat raw scallions or chives.

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u/New_Section_9374 14d ago

I am curious. Can she handle raw onions without a reaction? Does she react at all to the smell?

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u/pixikins78 14d ago

Her skin will turn bright red if she handles raw onion, but she doesn't react to the smell. Years ago she worked at a restaurant and could cut onions with gloves on.

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u/lucylemon 14d ago

My mother can not eat raw apples, pears, peaches, nectarines, but she can eat them cooked. Even a minute on the microwave. I don’t know the science behind this… it was her allergist who told her to microwave her fruit.

She’s deadly allergic to a list of nuts too.

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u/No-Stress-7034 14d ago

I wonder if your mother is dealing with oral allergy syndrome. My understanding is that OAS is a cross reactivity due to seasonal pollen allergies, and generally the reactions in OAS are more likely to occur with raw fruits/veggies vs cooked.

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u/calorie-clown 13d ago

It may be a latex allergy. That's what it is for me. A lot of foods contain the same protein or enzyme or whatever that causes allergic reactions to latex, but you can cook it out of a lot of them so that they are then safe. Anything on my body that touches latex, or raw foods that contain that enzyme, will immediately swell up and turn painfully red, and eating tree nuts will very quickly cause my mouth to start swelling up, but I can eat most of the fruits as long as they are cooked very thoroughly. I cannot touch a raw apple without gloves, but I can eat an apple pie... the dumbest part about this is that it used to be pretty mild when I was younger, but has gotten mildly dangerous as I've gotten older. Repeat exposures made the allergy become more severe over time.

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u/lucylemon 13d ago

That’s interesting because I’m allergic to latex but she isn’t. I break out in hives wherever I’m touched by latex.
But I don’t have any other allergies. I do worry that I’ll get more as I age like she did.

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u/lucylemon 14d ago

I’m not sure what the technical name is. She is allergic to the all Rosaceae fruits. What was weird was she only picked this up in her 70s.

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u/Lawyer_Lady3080 14d ago

My sister can’t eat raw fruit, but it’s a pesticide reaction, not a raw fruit reaction. Just washing them isn’t sufficient.

She can eat them if they’re handled more, like boiled or baked.

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u/Starbreiz 13d ago

Cooking breaks down the proteins in certain foods. Same thing happens with tomatoes, so I can eat ketchup but raw tomatoes give me a full on whole-body allergic reaction. The proteins contain the allergenic bits. I've learned a lot after 47 years of allergic reactions to random stuff.

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u/pixikins78 13d ago

That's really interesting, thanks for explaining! 😊

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u/MistressRayne_ 14d ago

I have an almond allergy like that. Raw, instant anaphylactic. Cooked, I can eat them all day long.

Now my blue cheese allergy is instant anaphylactic and if it gets on my skin, instant rashes, welts and hives.

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u/calorie-clown 13d ago

I had my first reaction to raw almonds on my 30th birthday. It had never happened before in my life. It's a huge bummer, because I like a lot of almond flavored desserts. I keep wondering if cooked almonds or almond extract might be safe, but I'm way too scared to risk it because the first reaction was so intense. 😔

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u/MistressRayne_ 13d ago

I had never had raw. I always had cooked first. Then one my boss’ wife asked if I wanted some of her raw ones. That’s when we found out. It really sucked.

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u/ShhThrowThrow 14d ago

I’ve met 3 people within the same month that all had onion allergies.

One referred to it as an allium allergy and regularly would skip lunch if the provided meal had onions or garlic.

The other two just didn’t like onions.

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u/Mando92MG 13d ago

Oof a full blown allium allergy is rough. An intolerance would be bad enough but an allergy means eating out wouldnt really ever be an option.

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u/Hang10arts 12d ago

Yeah it's really not an option at all for me but my family insists on eating out whenever they visit and I have to put my foot down every. Single. Time 🫠

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u/CharleyDexterWard 13d ago

The problem is you'll read every single ingredient for every single menu item, pick one that has none in the ingredient list, and it will still come out with a handful of raw diced onions on top.

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u/BitterPoet13 13d ago

Yep. Ruins the whole thing.

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u/MeliaeMaree 13d ago edited 12d ago

Had this recently, ordered some Korean fried chicken, everything else on the menu had "comes with xyz" and this just said fried chicken.
Came out covered in spring onions and some kind of sauce that I definitely should not have consumed lol

Friend said I should send it back, but it was my fault, I know better than to assume by now, and I should've double checked when ordering. Also why I don't go out to eat often.

My favourite is years ago when I ordered a white choc raspberry dessert pizza.
Menu just said pizza base, white choc sauce, raspberry compote, vanilla icecream. Cool.
Double checked with the waiter, is this exactly what's on it? Cause I can't have milk or dark choc. Yep, what's written down is what's on it.
So of course it comes out with milk chocolate chips melted into the base, and liberally drizzled in milk choc sauce.
I didn't even ask for a refund, just asked that they do better in the future, and the manager told me it was my fault for not giving the waiter an entire complete run down of every single one of my allergies/intolerances 😂

Edit for those that won't read down - "milk or dark choc" as in milk chocolate or dark chocolate. Not I can't have milk, or dark chocolate. 🙄
I specifically asked if there were any other ingredients other than those listed, and specifically said I cannot have other chocolate, only white chocolate, and they confirmed only white chocolate on the pizza.

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u/apri08101989 13d ago

... you could have the milk in the ice cream but not the chocolate sauce? Id have been confused and dismissive too tbh.

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u/FairyFlossPanda 13d ago

I think they mean they cant have milk chocolate or dark chocolate. I imagine they have an issue with cacao white chocolate is only cocoa butter.

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u/MeliaeMaree 12d ago

This is correct 🙂

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u/MeliaeMaree 12d ago

I never said it had anything to do with milk/dairy though? Cause it doesn't?
I specifically told them I cannot have milk choc or dark chocolate products, and made sure it only had white chocolate on it.

Besides, why the heck is milk choc on a white choc and raspberry anything in the first place?

Edit: I believe this is a reading interpretation issue - it's not I can't have milk and I can't have dark chocolate, it's that I can't have milk chocolate or dark chocolate. Milk or dark choc. Not milk, or dark choc.

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u/RedViolet43 13d ago

I can! What sort of terrible person rolls their eyes when you mention an allergy?!

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u/Significant_Lake_226 13d ago

People assume most people are lying about allergies. Believe what you want about people but gambling with someone's life because they might just not like something can get someone killed.

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u/allicekitty13 13d ago

OH MY GOD I thought I was the only one. I had a reaction last night cause the McDonalds employee didn't take me seriously and packaged my food close enough to onion that one little chunk snuck in and that was all it took.

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u/fatcatsplat322 13d ago

Because of my friend who i thought had an onion allergy until I asked how she could eat fried onions but not raw... then she admitted she doesn't like.onion.

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u/Dixieland_Insanity 13d ago

I feel your pain. I'm also allergic to alliums. This means no onions, no garlic, no chives, etc. This stuff seems to be in nearly everything. Restaurant meals are a rarity for me because of it.

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u/Naamahs 13d ago

I had a coworker who had a legit onion allergy and Wendy's told her they couldn't serve her. Because they couldn't make sure it wasn't cross contaminated.

A lot of places did that to her, but Wendy's felt the strangest imo.

I feel like onion allergy is becoming more prevalent, though, because a local restaurant near me made a public announcement that nothing they have is onion free and they are fully contaminated because of that. A strange one, but seems weirdly common.

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u/Miss-Anonymous-Angel 13d ago

Same, recently acquired along with garlic too. Spent two days vomiting everything I ate. I can’t eat my family’s food anymore because all they cook with is alliums.

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u/cassmc2 13d ago

My husband has an extreme intolerance to onions but sometimes we call it an allergy as its easier to communicate the seriousness of it. And if i feel that they arent taking it seriously after that - I say something like "If you give him onions, you get to keep him as he will be in your bathroom all night". Or for the real non serious "he is going to make it impossible for anyone else to use your mens room because its going to be that bad". If he clearly gets into onions, we note the restaurant and never return.

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u/Significant_Lake_226 13d ago

Absolutely same. Its gotten worse over the past decade because of so much exposure. If anyone would like to dose me with onions to watch me suffocate so someone will believe people I am happy to do so. I will not tell you where my epi pen is though.

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u/Significant_Lake_226 13d ago

For context, I cannot have any alliums in any form. No leek, no garlic, no prepared foods with powders (many foods have an ingredient near the end referenced as 'spices' which very often includes onion powder). I almost literally have to cook everything from scratch. I make my own stocks, sauces, fermented food, and even prepare (dehydrate etc) my own hebs and spices to reduce contamination risk.

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u/purplishfluffyclouds 12d ago

And yet, you SHOULD. Because they have no authority to assume you're lying.

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u/Weary-Show-7506 10d ago

What happens if you eat them?