How would you respond to this email?
Hi. We are interested in trying your pizza, but my son has severe food allergies. Are there eggs, peanuts, or tree nuts in any of your products?
Tell them the truth, they will apreciate. I had a lot of customers with food allergies, we dont use soy or eggs in the business, no meat at all, the only animal product is the mozz, and we cut n weight the mozz chesse in a cutter that never touch veggies or something else. We received many children with autism, they dont eat gluten someones dont even eat cow chesse. I prepare a special root vegetable chesse for that cases and have Daiya chesse too. The truth is key to repeat clients.
Thanks for the reply. I definitely will tell the truth but I do not know the answer. I have looked at all of my ingredients and do not see any of these items listed but I am worried about given false information by mistake.
I suppose I’d say something like this.
Hello,
Thank you for inquiring about our store. We make our pizza dough from scratch and the only ingredients in it are yeast, flour, water, salt, sugar and olive oil. Our sauce is also free of any of the items mentioned. We do our best to buy most of our products as close to their natural state as possible and therefor, I can say with 100% certainty that all of our veggies are free of those allergens too. Some of our meats come prepared, so if you have a specific question about one of them, I can look at the ingredient list for you too.
I do know of two products in our store that contain the items on your list. One is our pesto which contains pine nuts. Our pesto is only used on a few of our pizzas and sandwiches and it remains in a sealed container when not in use. Our gluten free dough also has eggs in it. This comes prepackaged and frozen from our distributor. It also does not have contact with any of our ingredients and we already use separate utensils for our gluten free crusts.
Hope it helps. You could always steer them to the items you are 100% certain are safe. (a veggie pizza in my case)
I left this one alone but really want too add something. With allergy reactions being anything from a slight discomfort to death I would not say “with 100% certainty” unless you are 100000000000% sure! What about the employee that had a peanut butter cookie on the way too work today and did not wash their hands? I was on a flight from Chicago to Orlando once that was delayed for 2 hours so they could sanitize the plane for a little girl that was on make-a-wish trip that also had food and other allergies so bad that even contact with the residuals of certain items could kill her! (I know…why not a private jet) I think it would be much more prudent to word a letter that goes over all ingrediants that are used on site and if any of them contain any known and widely accepted allergens, I would just say what all the large mfg’s state: “Food prepared at this location may contain eggs, nuts, etc…” I feel bad for anyone that has too live like this but are you willing to say “100% certain” when a customer dies and you lose it all? The liability here is all on you if you say 100%!
Putting on my former insurance adjuster cap, I am thinking it is best to reply but not actually answer the question…
Thanks everyone
Glad to see these very educated responses as compared to similar questions only a year ago on sites like this.
I am not only the father of a young so with severe food allergies…but a pizzeria owner that sells the only allergen-free pizza in the U.S…with great success.
TRUST is the biggest issue with parents of those with food allergies. However the reason we do so well, nearly 400 pies a week that are either gluten-free or allergen-free is due to trust and that our son is our marketing poster child “BY CHOICE.”
As for Daiya…great product BUT it does contain allergens…pea protein…so be careful eventhough it’s not a top 10 allergen.
Great response in the sample letter.
Great story about the peanut butter cookie…my one driver came in with a Snickers Ice Cream bar and I nearly ripped him a new butthole…needless to say there are so many variables with it comes to this. Even something as simple as Modified Food Starch can be wheat, soy, or corn…all three being food allergens.
Again…glad to see our industry is trying to do right by a disease that is incurable and if you still have the allergies by age 9 you will most likely live with them the rest of your life. These CAN be our customers too.
steve
mandys pizza
We had a customer phone last night (I missed her email as I was already rolling the dough out for the day) enquiring about allergies as her daughter has servere allergic reactions to peanuts.
Her main concern was that the pizzas cutting tool had cut Satay pizzas before the ones her daughter would be eating. I carefully explained that the person ordering (another parent for a chllds party) should request that clean cutting tools be used for this order due to allergies.
I also clearly stated that there are products we use that are manufactured elsewhere that state on the ingredient listing that the product is either made on lines that nuts may be processed or that the product may contain traces of nuts (the usual disclaimer). I advised that the most safest product to order was a vegetarian topping pizza with fresh vegetables only used.
I also clearly informed the lady that in NO WAY CAN WE CONFIDENTLY CLAIM that there is no contact with nuts or by products of nuts but we will do as much as we can possibly do to ensure all utensils are washed clean before we cut these pizzas and that all care is taken in making the pizzas so no cross contamination occurs. I also advised her that it would be her TOTAL RESPONSIBILITY in allowing her daughter to consume our pizzas.
Unfortunately there are people with servere allergy reactions and questions like this will come up time and again. As an operator we have the decision to serve these customers with the clear outlines such as made to this woman, or take the “sorry we cannot guarantee and will not place you or us at risk and cannot accept your order” route. With the litigation mad world that we are in I am leaning towards the latter and forego the sale instead of facing a possible major lawsuit. And, I would have difficulty living with myself if a death occured because of our product.
Sorry but we can’t be everything to everyone and the line will neeed to be drawn in the sand somewhere.
Dave