Spring Break
Danger in dining halls
Jillian Bouchard
Issue date: 5/1/08 Section: Opinion
Food allergies are becoming more and more prevalent these days, allergies like nut allergies, gluten allergies, lactose-intolerance, and many more. About 1% or 2.7 million American adults suffer from a food allergy according to wrong diagnosis or WD.com, one of the world's leading providers of on-line medical information. I myself have an allergy to walnuts. The thing I find most challenging about having this allergy is trying to figure out whether or not foods in the dining halls have walnuts and I'm sure I'm not the only one who has problems with this. This problem wouldn't be that bad if the servers knew if the products had nuts in them. Most of the desert products are pre-prepared so they don't always know what is in them.
But not only do people with allergies have to be careful with the ingredients but they also have to worry about cross contamination. People with severe allergies can go into anaphylactic shock if their food was next to something they are allergic to, like if you're allergic to peanuts and you have a sandwich and it was next to a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The dining halls on campus doesn't take this into consideration, the scoops for the ice cream are all kept in the same water even if there is an ice cream with nuts, the peanut butter is right next to the jelly and cream cheese. The school makes all residents get a meal plan so they should do more to accommodate those with food allergies. They need to label the food better and offer foods without ingredients that are common for food allergies. They also need to be more conscious of the ingredients.
Food allergies are a growing problem. The key is to be careful and to limit the amount of cross contamination you may cause. For example don't put the tongs you used to get onions on your salad to get anything else, use the tongs they provide for individual foods. It's easy to prevent cross contamination. Please be more aware that even if you don't have an allergy others do.
But not only do people with allergies have to be careful with the ingredients but they also have to worry about cross contamination. People with severe allergies can go into anaphylactic shock if their food was next to something they are allergic to, like if you're allergic to peanuts and you have a sandwich and it was next to a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The dining halls on campus doesn't take this into consideration, the scoops for the ice cream are all kept in the same water even if there is an ice cream with nuts, the peanut butter is right next to the jelly and cream cheese. The school makes all residents get a meal plan so they should do more to accommodate those with food allergies. They need to label the food better and offer foods without ingredients that are common for food allergies. They also need to be more conscious of the ingredients.
Food allergies are a growing problem. The key is to be careful and to limit the amount of cross contamination you may cause. For example don't put the tongs you used to get onions on your salad to get anything else, use the tongs they provide for individual foods. It's easy to prevent cross contamination. Please be more aware that even if you don't have an allergy others do.
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