Building Allergen Awareness: Turning compliance into customer trust

For the food and hospitality industry, allergen management is about more than meeting regulations. It is about safeguarding customers, strengthening reputation, and creating a culture that builds lasting trust.

In this episode, host Patrick McNamara of Intertek Food Services is joined by Lijlia Polo Richards, founder of Allergy Companions. Sparked by her own family’s experience with severe food allergies, Lilia shares insights on how businesses can move beyond disclaimers and embed allergen awareness into their daily practices.

Together, they discuss:

• Why asking the “allergen question” is only step one
• How a culture of allergen awareness can genuinely transform the customer experience
• The business case for embracing allergy-friendly practices

Speakers:

• Patrick McNamara – Global Innovations and Quality Manager, Intertek Food Services
• Lijlia Polo Richards – Founder & Director, Allergy Companions

Download our complimentary e-book to learn what a food allergen is, how to test for allergens in food, and the UK and EU regulations for allergen labelling. Download here! 

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Transcript

 Patrick McNamara  Intertek   0:05
 Hello everyone and welcome to the latest episode in our series on the issue of food allergens. In previous episodes we focused on challenges such as supplier integrity, manufacturing controls and ingredient management.
 Now, these are all significant risks to consider. There's no doubt about it. However, on today's programme, our attention turns to the one thing that unites all businesses, and that is their customers, the people who purchase their products.
 Who eat and drink at their restaurants, pubs and cafes. Effectively, today's show is about you and me and everyone we know and halting the Lantern and shedding light as we navigate the caverns of current customer service.
 Is the founder of Allergy Companions, Lilia Polo Richards. Lilia, welcome to the program.
Liljia   1:00
 Hi, Patrick. Thank you so much for having me on the show.
Patrick McNamara  Intertek   1:03
 It's a genuine, genuine pleasure. Now at Intertek, our job is risk management. This is what we do. So we're probably more familiar with your work. But for those who may not know you, can you tell us a bit about yourself and what you do?
Liljia   1:17
 Yes, absolutely. So I'm the founder and director of Allergy Companions. The company started at the end of 2021 as a review platform for people with food allergies, celiac disease and intolerances.
 The story behind my website was inspired by my son. He was diagnosed with a severe nut allergy when he was 13 months old. And actually the real story behind the website was driven and inspired by a sad experience that we had.
 As allergy diners in May 2021, when we went for a meal in Norfolk, we booked a table at a restaurant. We told them about allergies. We discussed our allergy requirements on the day.
 And somehow our food arrived covered in nuts. So it all started because of something that didn't go quite right.
Patrick McNamara  Intertek   2:19
 Yeah, no, I understand that. It's an interesting personal story that you've clearly turned into a a a professional approach and and it does explain actually why if you're going to get into the food industry, allergens management is probably not where I'd start because it's not the.
 The simplest of areas to manage. So since starting your work in in late 2021, what changes have you seen in the allergy landscape in the UK?
Liljia   2:46
 Yes. So, so when I first started the work, I would say that allergens and allergen management were talked about, started to talk about certainly when I first started the website was a bit of an eye-opener when reviews started coming in and I sightseeing what.
 People were discussing in terms of what they noticed that restaurants and venues were doing well, restaurants weren't doing so well. But what I noticed that it wasn't necessarily a topic that was so much in the headlines.
 I didn't. I felt that people were talking about it, but probably there wasn't a vocal enough community behind it to really help drive the standards. And I think what I've seen over the last few years, people like myself and some of the charities and.
Patrick McNamara  Intertek   3:23
 Yeah.
Liljia   3:41
 Some some allergy experts and advocates like me start to be more vocal about things that are and unacceptable in the food industry, behaviours that needed to change negative aptitudes towards.
 For people with allergies, and I suppose as well, there's been a bit of a switch from talking about allergens purely because of some of the sad events that have taken place over the last 10 years and more of a switch towards actually these are positive.
Patrick McNamara  Intertek   4:14
 Yeah, sure.
Liljia   4:21
 Examples that we've seen in this industry, more needs to be done to, you know, to improve the way people are catered for the information that's given to them, etcetera. So I'm definitely seeing the topic of allergens become more and more prominent.
Patrick McNamara  Intertek   4:37
 Yeah, I I think we see it throughout the food industry, but particularly in hospitality where as you say, some of those tragic stories emanated from, do you feel that that it is getting the right level of attention from companies in the media or the right type of attention perhaps?
Liljia   4:56
 Probably the media could do with perhaps having a slightly more positive spin on the topic of allergens. You know, even in recent in in the last year, unfortunately, there's been, you know, there have been a couple of fatalities again.
 But I would say that, you know, especially, you know, I I've been running a conference for the last three years and I know that a lot of food industry leaders are really taking notice on the topic of halogen. So I suppose.
 In the media, unfortunately, what grabs people's attentions is headline stories, things that go wrong. But certainly there's been more of an effort to raise awareness of food allergies, the condition that affects people, celiac disease. I even see, you know, shows like Good Morning Britain. I think they've had a few.
Patrick McNamara  Intertek   5:38
 Yeah, sure.
Liljia   5:53
 From the cediac community. So I think there's definitely been more of a concerted effort to understand what the condition is and what what the conditions are, you know, because obviously food allergies and cediac disease are just different medical conditions.
Patrick McNamara  Intertek   5:56
 Mhm.
Liljia   6:11
 To really try to explain to the the general public really how these conditions affect people and the fact that they're not just kind of fads and people are not just being fussy eaters, but actually they can lead to tragic consequences if not taken seriously.
Patrick McNamara  Intertek   6:23
 Yeah.
Liljia   6:29
 So hopefully in the next few years we'll hear more news stories where actually we hear more groundbreaking news in terms of cures that have perhaps been found and more treatments being available and some news stories in terms of positive examples that we've seen.
Patrick McNamara  Intertek   6:48
 Yeah.
Liljia   6:49
 Businesses taking with regards to catering for people with food allergies.
Patrick McNamara  Intertek   6:51
 Yeah.
 Yeah, I would agree. I think we've kind of moved from the stories that do catch the headlines and we rather wish that they didn't have to towards, you know, things that are groundbreaking, technical breakthroughs, medical help and a bit more awareness.
 In communities and I think in the industry press, certainly there's a lot more positive spin on it. Now in in terms of hospitality businesses and and I I know hospitality is under a lot of pressure from a lot of different angles, but.
Liljia   7:21
 Yes.
Patrick McNamara  Intertek   7:31
 Some people think of, you know, asking the allergy question at the outset of, you know, a diner, diner's experience or just having allergen information available. That's kind of enough, but can't be that simple, can it?
Liljia   7:47
 No, absolutely. I think it's fantastic to see so many more restaurants and cafes asking the allergic question. What I mean with the allergic question, you know, when you sit down the the waiter or the waitress or the manager might ask is, does anybody have any allergies? Are there any dietary requirements we need to be aware of?
 And I think it's great to see allergies being something on people's mind and people asking that question. And it's great to see also a lot of restaurants offering the allergen menu, which allows you to to see dish by dish what allergens are.
 Can't contain in the menu, which I think is great, you know, it's a great step forward, but I think we need to remember that asking people if they have any allergies is the first acknowledgement.
 Of allergies, you know, you asking, you know, do we need to be aware of anybody at the table having an allergy? But for me it's actually what happens next. You know, you've asked that question, what is the person taking that information? Let's say someone said I have a.
Patrick McNamara  Intertek   8:44
 Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Liljia   9:02
 Station allergy, how is that information then sent back to the kitchen and what is the kitchen going to do with that information if they are aware of a particular allergy from a customer? And I think that's why I think it's great that.
 You know, people are asked the questions kind of what happens after. But also if the person tells you, oh, I have coeliac disease or I have a tree nut allergy or I'm allergic to milk, how is that interaction then with the customer? How are you going to help them?
 Make an informed decision once they tell you that, and I think that's why, you know, there's a lot more to.
Patrick McNamara  Intertek   9:38
 Mhm.
 Yeah. And I I think with businesses who've genuinely thought about it, they've already got an idea about how they they answer that follow-up question and and what action is triggered by the customer response. And that's when you say they've actually done the.
 The whole risk assessment, obviously I think that the risk in hospitality where they're very often working in small food production areas is cross-contamination. But why is it such a key issue and how does better understanding it?
 Perhaps benefit the companies and the customers.
Liljia   10:21
 Absolutely. I think cross-contamination is a massive issue, but also a huge topic and I think it's something that needs to be explored further in the coming months and years and the reason why I think it's such an important area.
 Is especially when, for example, I see a lot of restaurants saying, you know, all those our dishes contain all allergens or we handle all allergens in our kitchen and there's a risk of cross-contamination and I think that's fair enough.
 But let's take it a step further. You know, if if you did a proper risk assessment, what how much of those allergens do you actually handle in the kitchen? In how many dishes do you have, for example, sesame or tree nuts or gluten or?
 Celery. And for example, is it just one dish or does every dish contain a particular allergen? Have you got a designated area where, for example, you just do not handle a specific allergen or or you know some some places might say, oh, our food can contain traces on that.
 You find out that the only place that they handle nuts is in a jar by the bar and they only ever serve those nuts with a drink. So it's completely different part of the venue that there will never be a risk. Yet it's mentioned and I think.
 If we can get companies to take a step back, run a risk assessment, which is what they should be doing before they can even produce an allergen menu, and actually start quantifying what the actual risks are to customers with certain allergies.
 Is the risk high, low, highly likely, etcetera, etcetera. But also and that's perhaps where you can tell us a bit more, Patrick, you know, go as far as perhaps testing or spot, you know.
Patrick McNamara  Intertek   12:31
 Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. You've touched on the very nature of listing hazards versus genuine risk, which is something that if you work in food safety or health and safety is, is.
Liljia   12:31
 You know.
Patrick McNamara  Intertek   12:46
 They're two very different things. I can list you a whole load of hazards. The likelihood of many of them happening are slim to nil. So is that a risk? Not really. And and this is the trap I think that too many businesses fall into absolutely part of your quantitative risk assessment.
Liljia   12:50
 2.
Patrick McNamara  Intertek   13:06
 Is something that we do on a regular basis for QSR companies and for restaurants and cafes that we work with where we do swabbing exercises to look at genuine cross contact and then we look at controls and the effectiveness of controls and I think you're.
 You're absolutely right. I think going that step further and instead of saying I've got this on site, but I use it once every Halley's Comet and I use it in one dish and the guy only comes in every Christmas looking for it. Let's just be honest about what the risk is.
 Because surely you want people to eat at your establishment, not turn them away. No, I absolutely agree. So in that respect then, is is allergy awareness something that should be part of company culture? Is that something that's important, the awareness of that?
Liljia   13:47
 OK.
 Absolutely. I think it's it's really interesting actually. I've done, you know, I've looked at a few companies whose ethos is all about looking after the community, welcoming customers and.
 You know, having that really warm culture. Yet when you look at their approach to allergens, it's quite negative, it's quite risk averse, it's quite, oh, if we have customers with allergy, you know, it's your responsibility to assess your risk appetite or we don't accept liability even.
 And and you think you know actually how can you have a company culture where you you really believe in welcoming anybody to your restaurant. Yet when it comes to customers with allergies that almost fall under a different category and I think and I think as well.
Patrick McNamara  Intertek   14:52
 Yeah.
Liljia   14:55
 You know, the way your staff might be trained, they might be trained to be really, you know, really responses, really attentive. But yet the minute the a person says, oh, I have a nut allergy, oh, but you know, it is, you know, we can't guarantee that you will will be, you know, safe.
 For your, you know, collagen free, you know and any kind of, I think the whole cultures then starts sending, oh, you know, your business starts sending mixed messages to customers and the culture looks a little bit kind of, you know, unclear and actually.
Patrick McNamara  Intertek   15:15
 Mhm.
 Hmm.
Liljia   15:31
 A company culture shouldn't just be about, you know, how you want your your staff to feel working for your business, or how your generic customers should feel when they walk through your doors. Actually, how should everybody feel?
Patrick McNamara  Intertek   15:46
 Yeah.
Liljia   15:46
 And I think allergen culture is such an important part of it because I think if your staff feel like they really want to go above and beyond, if someone walks through the door says I have a a, you know, a particular allergy, actually you want those customers to feel.
 As welcoming to that venue as anybody else. And I think you know and I think it's so important. I think that then translates into customers of any kind feeling happy. It's in there. They feel like they can socialise with family and friends. They can have a really great.
 Experience. And then it's it's like a seamless, you know, dining.
Patrick McNamara  Intertek   16:29
 It's a good business investment, isn't it? Most businesses are built on repeat business and word of mouth and and recommendations from others. So it doesn't seem to make good business sense to alienate any group of people to be honest. I just have to mention because we're talking about food safety culture from low food safety.
Liljia   16:43
 No.
Patrick McNamara  Intertek   16:48
 Geek friends who I have a few. I have to mention that the latest version of the codex actually focuses majorly on safety culture as a prerequisite for food safety in general, and that of course includes allergen controls.
 So it's it's definitely one that people do need to focus on. Quick word on on disclaimers because you mentioned then you know about disclaimers and and they can be a bit off-putting. How can you actually get that message across that's?
 You know, positive and helpful and a genuine reflection of the risk that that person might take eating in that restaurant.
Liljia   17:28
 Yes, absolutely. And that leads back to everything we just talked about in terms of the allergen question, you know the the allergen menu, the cross-contamination risks. I think you know if we look at the disclaimer, I'd like to call it more allergen message because that's what it should be.
 Disclaimer me and say denial responsibility, which to me seems crazy when we're talking about a business serving food to customers. Let's talk about it as a knowledge and message. And I would say that the best way to describe it is something that it should be. It should be a message.
 That helps you as a business convey convey the right message to customers and it's a message that customers will read and interpret the right way. And what I mean by this, you know why in the 1st place, why do you have a knowledge and message? You want to make a statement.
 A statement about perhaps your company culture around allergies. You perhaps want to make a statement about anything that you know you may warn your customers of. So for example, you might be a business that really takes allergy seriously, but perhaps.
 The risk for someone with a peanut allergy is too high because you use peanuts too much or or you know you have a very tiny kitchen and therefore it's very hard to control the risks of cross contamination because you simply don't have enough space to.
 Prepare certain meals or you simply want to say to customers with allergies, we have really strong processes in place. Please do tell us if you have a food allergy so that we can follow the correct process to prepare a safe meal. I think the way we need to look at the allergen message is not.
 As a way to put customers off and say don't eat here because the risk of cross-contamination is too high because that kind of leaves the customer wondering, am I safe here? Am I not safe here? And actually what has happened over the last few years because.
 Consumers have become more and more used to see negative messages. More often than not, they will just ignore them because they think, oh, that business is just covering their backside. They they're just putting that so that they, you know, if anything goes wrong, they think that they they're covered. I'll just ignore it.
Patrick McNamara  Intertek   19:49
 Yeah.
Liljia   19:55
 And actually that ignoring culture from consumers is even more dangerous. So that's why I think, you know, building a message that actually means something to customers or perhaps invites them to ask questions so that they can generally find out if you can prepare them a safe meal.
 So important, pretty much more important than trying to, you know, be risk averse.
Patrick McNamara  Intertek   20:16
 2.
 Yeah.
 Yeah, no, I understand. I had a very interesting conversation with somebody recently about who'd actually studied adolescents with food allergies and found that adolescents, surprise, surprise, are risk takers.
 And were much more likely to put themselves at risk if they saw a negative message in a coffee shop or in a quick service restaurant or something like that, which I think is very interesting. Anybody who's done health and safety for a living knows that adolescents are a vulnerable category for risk, and it's equally the same for for.
 Diligence as well. So I can see that the time is moving on. So perhaps just as a point to finish on, if you could get every food business to do one thing differently starting tomorrow, what would you recommend to them? It's a big question, by the way, Lilius.
Liljia   21:15
 No, absolutely. I think, I mean there are thousands of things, but I think let's start from the basics. I think it would be great to see more businesses. I could actually taking the time to understand what food allergies and celiac disease are.
 How they affect people, how can they, how they affect people in the day-to-day life psychologically. And so that when they're creating processes, when they are looking at that company culture, they can build that into it because I think if you have.
 Members of staff who understand they can make someone's day by really looking after them when serving them, when preparing their food, they can really look to go above and beyond in terms of what's required of them, but also when creating menus instead of thinking.
 You know, you have some chefs who will say, oh, we just need to create a menu that is safe for people with nut allergies when only a few will have it. Actually, let's flip it the other way round. What about creating menus that are great? You're serving amazing tasting food.
 And at the same time, they are allergy friendly. A lot of people with different allergies can have them or we have a multiple dishes on your menu that fit the bill for different allergy profiles. And I think that's what's really important, you know, is to think about don't look at allergies as something that is scary.
 Something that you think is, you know, a pain, let's be honest, but something that actually it's there. You know, we can't help the fact that millions of people in the UK alone are affected by these conditions and their families as well.
 And actually see as an opportunity, something that businesses should see as how can we look after that, you know, consumer category to that would then make business sense. You know, they will then invite that family, they'll bring their family and friends over to our.
 It'll, you know, improve our reputation as a business, you know, let's see it as an opportunity rather than, you know, something that you have to do just because you don't want to finish, you know, to end up on, you know, a newspaper for doing.
Patrick McNamara  Intertek   23:35
 Yeah.
 Yeah, you don't want to be on the wrong end of a bad story. Now that that's fantastic. I think the message to the restaurant and cafe owners of Great Britain is embrace allergic consumers, engage with them, speak to them, give them an honest, you know, reflection of what you can do for them.
 And I think that that conversation is exactly encouraging to people in terms of a correct reflection of the risk. That's fantastic. Lilia, thank you so much for your time to me. It's been an absolute pleasure for anybody listening at home if you want more information on allergens testing.
Liljia   24:16
 Oh, no worries.
Patrick McNamara  Intertek   24:24
 You can go to intertech.com/food. You can contact Lilia through the Allergy Companions website and keep up to date with all the projects that she's working on. Lilia, thank you again for being on the show.
Liljia   24:36
 Thank you so much for having me.