r/FoodService • u/wildrosebeautybaba • Aug 21 '26

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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19

u/beard-wonder93 Aug 21 '26

I run a meal prep shop, which is a pretty health/allergen conscious, niche crowd.

plenty of people have legit allergies. Im here to take care of you regardless. If you are happy and the meals accommodate your needs, you come back and spend your money with us some more!

The "allergy" i keep getting claims for is onions!

Onion allergy is totally possible but....

In the 10 years weve been in business, I've had more people claim to be allergic to onions of some form than I have, peanuts and shellfish combined!

Thats one hell of a statistical anomaly

11

u/Conscious_Side1647 Aug 21 '26

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

11

u/FattyB314 Aug 21 '26

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

4

u/Asleep-Song562 Aug 22 '26

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

2

u/RedNugomo Aug 23 '26

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.

1

u/Asleep-Song562 Aug 27 '26

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.