Olive Catering, the only contract caterer to sign the letter, has criticised the “bureaucratic nightmare” of the new allergen regulations that came into force in December.
Sally-Ann Bradley, co-founder of Olive Catering Services, said: “Like countless other catering organisations, we were issued with a printed document stating the 14 allergens and the need to communicate these to our customers, but these came without any offer of support, and very little guidance on how we should go about implementing this.
“The biggest issue with the new requirements is that they significantly stifle the creativity of a chef in those businesses, such as ours, where menus do not simply derive from a set recipe card. We’re now encountering instances where chefs are having to put the taste preferences of their customers to one side, in favour of ensuring the dish only contains the ingredients their pre-prepared label states.
“Within our business, one of the traits we are most proud of is that we grant chefs in different regions the freedom to adapt dishes in line with their customers’ preferences. Our reluctance to prescribe set recipes and set ingredients means we can offer dishes our customers want, made with locally-sourced ingredients and incorporating the regional tastes and flavours we know they enjoy.
“It goes without saying that we encounter many customers who have strict dietary requirements ranging from lactose intolerance to gluten free, but customers with allergies will approach us to ask which dishes are suitable for them. We don’t necessarily believe that just because we’re labelling our dishes, customers will automatically know which dishes are safe for them to eat as we fully expect they’ll continue to double-check with the team member.
“The EU requirements have also incurred huge costs to our business. We’ve had to host training courses for every team member in every one of our restaurants to ensure the new systems are introduced, we’ve had to produce new stationery, and we’ve had to overhaul our labelling system. All this in spite of the fact there was nothing to say the change was ever needed.”
These comments follow recent research from Caternet who found that one third of catering and hospitality managers admit that one of their biggest concerns is staff giving out incorrect allergens information to customers. To read more on this issue, see below.