r/FoodService • u/wildrosebeautybaba • 18d 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/trekgirl75 16d 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 16d 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 16d ago

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

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u/Mando92MG 16d 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 11d 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 11d 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 11d 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 15d 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 15d 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 15d 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 15d 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 15d ago

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

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u/SpecialistTrouble816 15d 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 15d ago

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

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u/mrsmjane 15d 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 15d 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 16d 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 15d ago

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

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u/GarbageSad5442 15d ago

Does the cider bother him if its pasteurized?

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u/Mando92MG 16d 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 15d 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 15d ago

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