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[quote=Anonymous]Some restaurant do this already - fast food restaurants and big chain restaurants like Cheesecake Factory. For smaller restaurants, they often operate differently - they don’t order their ingredients in bulk from Sysco or us foods. They don’t have as many ingredients that are shelf stable or can sit for days in the walk in without going bad. They tend to order their stuff from the local farm or specialized purveyors and much if it is perishable. Menu items change and can be seasonal or just dependent on what’s on hand.

As an owner of independent restaurants, I think it definitely can be done, and it’s easier for some places. For example, restaurants that rely on assembling their dishes have an easier time, but restaurants that rely on multi step processes have a harder time. The Mexican taquerias where each item is a different combo of 20 different ingredients can give you the allergens of each component.

Restaurants that have rapidly changing menus and complicated items where prep may start a few days beforehand can produce charts, but menu prices would rise to compensate for the time spent reviewing allergens from increased cost of ordering and storing extra food to make sure menu items are uniform, extra equipment to make sure there is no contamination, ie redundant fryers, and renting/buying extra kitchen space to accommodate all of the above.

At the same time, menus would include fewer or no daily specials or seasonal items because it would be very hard to apply the same level of scrutiny to an item that is only on the menu for a day. This is the reason there are no daily specials at Cheesecake Factory.

As a restaurant owner AND a mom of a kid with nut and egg allergies, I know a lot of people feel the same way as you do. The way I think it works the best, is when restaurants are dedicated to be free of certain allergens, or have a dedicated allergy free menu that accompanies the regular menu. I think more and more, we will see allergy free menus at even the fancy restaurants. We will also see more chefs who have allergies themselves, or have loved ones with allergies, which will also drive progress.

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