Controversy closes its dark talons of confusion over the new EU union rules. Restaurant and franchise owners variably oppose the stringent requirements that press restaurant operators to meticulously research and identify up to14 possible food allergens in that are present within their foods. While the EU rules were intended to improve public consumption safety, restaurant owners lament the cost of both time and money to scrutinize every food item that enters a dish. They claim that verbal verification with the customer is enough to raise cognizance of food allergens. Now that many restaurants rely on industrialized, prepackaged food, it is especially arduous to verify the exact contents of the ingredient present in foods. In this sense, the
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Most restaurants and other businesses that commercial retail food items obtain their food ingredients from agrarian and pre-packaged food industry, and have to painstakingly analyze each food item they add into their dish, often forcing them to revise their entire menu. Worst of all, food industries that are not under the jurisdiction of EU rules are subject to change their recipe without notice, rendering such industrial food nearly impossible to use in restaurant cuisine. A simple resolution to this immense issue would be to include all food industries under the EU a standards. With prepackaged food identifying the potential allergens hidden in them, restaurant owners would receive alleviation from the laborious task of manually testing food items. Although enforcing these standards at a higher scale would likely infiltrate a number of additional conflicts, such as enforcement policy and governmental capacity, it would reduce most of effort required to identify allergens in commercial …show more content…
Such a modification may be as small as listing potential allergens in the menu, effectively eliminating excessive verbal communication between allergy sufferers and staff members. After all, only 2% of adults are afflicted with allergies, so while it is important to list allergens, the vast majority of costumers would not be affected by the EU standards. Another solution to this seemingly insoluble conflict is to focus primarily on the more common food allergens, such as peanuts, soy, milk, egg, and wheat, the four most common food ingredients and food allergens. These four food allergens account for nearly 90% of all food allergies of the 2-4% people with food allergies, effectively reducing the previous list of 14 food allergens. Simple adjustments as these can not only efficiently replace the stringent EU standards, but also offer less grief to kitchen staff and restaurant
Most restaurants and other businesses that commercial retail food items obtain their food ingredients from agrarian and pre-packaged food industry, and have to painstakingly analyze each food item they add into their dish, often forcing them to revise their entire menu. Worst of all, food industries that are not under the jurisdiction of EU rules are subject to change their recipe without notice, rendering such industrial food nearly impossible to use in restaurant cuisine. A simple resolution to this immense issue would be to include all food industries under the EU a standards. With prepackaged food identifying the potential allergens hidden in them, restaurant owners would receive alleviation from the laborious task of manually testing food items. Although enforcing these standards at a higher scale would likely infiltrate a number of additional conflicts, such as enforcement policy and governmental capacity, it would reduce most of effort required to identify allergens in commercial …show more content…
Such a modification may be as small as listing potential allergens in the menu, effectively eliminating excessive verbal communication between allergy sufferers and staff members. After all, only 2% of adults are afflicted with allergies, so while it is important to list allergens, the vast majority of costumers would not be affected by the EU standards. Another solution to this seemingly insoluble conflict is to focus primarily on the more common food allergens, such as peanuts, soy, milk, egg, and wheat, the four most common food ingredients and food allergens. These four food allergens account for nearly 90% of all food allergies of the 2-4% people with food allergies, effectively reducing the previous list of 14 food allergens. Simple adjustments as these can not only efficiently replace the stringent EU standards, but also offer less grief to kitchen staff and restaurant