Hosting a dinner party takes some time, effort and planning. This is true whether you’re hosting guests with dietary restrictions or not. When hosting an allergy friendly dinner party, all of the usual dinner party planning principles apply. However, there are additional concerns, preparations, and execution steps that you need to consider to ensure a safe and enjoyable party for all of your guests, including those with food allergies.
The Challenge of Hosting a Dinner Party that Accommodates One or More Food Allergies
Let me start off by saying: food allergies are serious and shouldn’t be taken lightly. While some reactions may be on the milder side such as a rash or stomach discomfort, others can be severe and life threatening. The thing is, there is no guarantee that someone who had a mild reaction to a food allergen previously won’t have a more severe one in the future. As a host / hostess, it’s better to be safe than sorry and to err on the side of caution. While a dinner party involving a trip to the hospital would likely be memorable, I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that’s not the kind of “memorable” you’re going for at your event. (Just a hunch.)
That all said, you shouldn’t let this caution deter you from hosting a dinner party for guests with food allergies. By understanding what you’re dealing with, you can plan appropriately and make informed decisions about your menu, ingredients, food preparation process, and serving plan.
Some Important Notes about Allergies
So let’s start by talking about “what you’re dealing with.” Before we dive into what you need to do, there are a few background items that we should cover. Knowing some important information can enhance your awareness of dangers while planning your dinner party.
What is an allergy and what does it do?
A food allergy occurs when the body’s immune system reacts to a food protein. Basically, in these cases, the immune system decides that a particular food is a malicious invader and seeks to destroy it. How a person reacts to a particular food allergy can range from mild (such as a minor rash) to severe and life-threatening (such as anaphylaxis). Even if someone has previously had a mild allergic reaction to a food, there is no guarantee that the next one won’t be severe. Because of this, you should always take the allergic restrictions of your guests seriously.
I strongly encourage a quick foray to foodallergy.org for some great information about food allergies and how to handle them. While it can be easy to rabbit hole on this topic, I would suggest starting with these two pages:
There is a lot of great information there. The elements that I most want to call out for our dinner party planning purposes, though, are the following:
- “Even a trace of food allergen can trigger a severe reaction.” 1
- “Avoiding cross-contact between a safe food and your food allergen is just as important as avoiding the allergen itself.” 1
- “Cross-contact occurs when an allergen is accidentally transferred from one food to another. The food that was safe before is now dangerous for people with that food allergy.” 1
What are the top nine most common food allergens? Are there more?
- Milk, Egg, Peanut, Tree Nuts, Soy, Wheat, Fish, Shellfish, Sesame
The top 9 are the ones that you will find listed on food nutrition labels. However, there are more allergies than this. Make sure you get the full list from your guest(s). If they do have other food allergies, you may need to do a little more research / googling of ingredients to make sure they are safe.
What is the difference between Cross Contact and Cross Contamination and why does it matter?
If you’ve been cooking for a while, you are probably familiar with the idea of cross-contamination.
Some examples of cross-contamination:
- Cut raw chicken on a cutting board and then use the same knife or cutting board without first washing (with soap and hot water) it to cut raw vegetables for dippers.
- Crack an egg on the counter-top and miss a spot of raw egg that oozed out when wiping up (or not wiping up) and then setting ready-to-eat food (no additional cooking required) down on top of it.
I think of cross-contact as the much more extreme and unforgiving cousin of cross-contamination. Unlike cross-contamination, cross-contact cannot be “cooked” away. In most cases, cooking a food to its appropriate temperature will kill the bacteria associated with cross-contamination. No amount of cooking is going to remove an allergen. It doesn’t work that way. The allergen is the protein of the food itself, not a microorganism that can be killed by applying enough heat.
The way to keep food allergy-safe is to prevent cross-contact in the first place. I find this easiest to do by thinking in binary (yes / no) terms. Either the allergen is present or it’s not. There is no such thing as a degree or range of contact. Even a little, teeny, tiny bit of allergen has the potential to cause a problem.
Proper Planning to Accommodate Food Allergies and Keep Your Guest(s) Safe
Okay, now that we have an idea of what we’re dealing with, let’s talk about what we can do about it so that we can still host a dinner party that is safe for all in attendance (at least from a food allergy perspective). What you do at your parties otherwise is outside the scope of this article. 😛
Let’s break this down as follows:
- Information Gathering
- Menu Selection and Ingredient Research & Selection
- Prep, Cooking, and Serving Workflows
Information Gathering
First and foremost, it is important that you get a clear understanding from your guests of any food allergies and / or food sensitivities.
Which foods are they allergic too?
They could be allergic to one of the “Top 9” or something else. Get the details. For example, if they say nuts, make sure you are clear on if that means peanuts or tree nuts. Tree nuts include, but are not limited to: walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, cashews, pistachios, and Brazil nuts. Some other allergies that I encounter amongst my guests include but are not limited to coconut, strawberries, and buckwheat.
Do they have a food allergy or a food intolerance?
These are not the same, but you should have both top of mind for planning purposes. While food allergies have more severe, even potentially life-threatening implications, it’s often easiest to avoid both as you plan your menu.
Once you have that information, you can plan your menu accordingly.
Menu Selection, Ingredient Research & Selection
Picking the dishes that you are planning to serve and the ingredient research process go hand in hand. I usually approach this process by starting with recipes and then taking a look (via Googling) at the nutrition labels of the ingredients I would be using for them.
When you are reading food labels, here are some things to keep in mind:
- Make sure the allergen is not listed as one of the ingredients.
- Check for any warnings of if it was processed in a location that also processes one of the allergens you are trying to avoid.
- Check for any notes regarding how the food was treated or prepared or preserved.
I would also encourage you to head back to the FARE site to check out this article on “How to Read a Food Label” from an allergen perspective.
This is one of those times when simpler ingredients are better. Simpler ingredients means spending less time reading food labels. I find fresh produce to be my friend in these types of menus. I’m not saying there isn’t a zucchini, spaghetti squash, or leafy greens allergy out there, but I haven’t encountered it yet for any of my guests. I turn to these types of foods and simple preparations. Remember, food doesn’t require elaborate recipes to be delicious.
If you’ve read along with me for any length of time, you’ve probably heard me mention how much I appreciate and enjoy “convenience foods.” (Examples include but aren’t limited to things like store bought keto bread, pre-made dips for appetizers, box cake mixes.) I, unashamedly, do use these things. However, this is one of those situations in which they might not be your friend. I’m not saying that you can’t use convenience foods or have to make everything from scratch. However, you need to pay close attention to the ingredients list for these items, including any notes of how they were treated or processed.
Look at this as a chance to let fresh ingredients shine and you’ll see that you still have MANY great menu options.
Some Menu Ideas
Maybe some Easy Roasted Zucchini or Green Beans with Garlic & Roasted Red Peppers for a side. Perhaps some Lamb Lollipops or Easy Herb-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin for a main course. Pending the allergy list, try some mixed berries or a Keto Chocolate Coffee Mousse for dessert.
Prep, Cooking, and Serving Workflows when Hosting an Allergy Friendly Dinner Party
Now that we have the food sorted, let’s talk about planning your workflows to keep everything and everyone allergy safe.
Prepping
As I alluded to above, preparing for a dinner party with food allergies is one of the few times that I would encourage you to think in very black and white terms. Food, utensils, dishes, surfaces, towels, your hands either have or have not come into contact with the allergens (proteins). I recommend establishing an allergen-free zone for your prep work. Make sure all surfaces, cooking vessels, and utensils that enter that area have been washed and sanitized with soap and water to remove any allergens. Wash your hands before touching anything in that zone.
If at all possible, I strongly encourage you to select a menu that does not contain any ingredients with the relevant allergen(s). This will simplify your cooking and preparation processes as well as your serving set-up. If that isn’t possible, you’re going to need to think in terms of two separate workflows and serving plans. Just remember that even touching the plate of a person with allergies with a hand that has also touched a plate with food containing the allergen(s) IS a hazard. That is cross-contact and needs to be avoided.
I know I’m a broken record, but remember: This isn’t like avoiding bacteria by cooking foods to their appropriate temperature(s). The very proteins that make up the food trigger allergies. Cooking doesn’t change the proteins that constitute a food.
Example
To give you a better picture of what should happen, let’s look at the appropriate procedure in a restaurant situation. In that case, the meal of the person with allergies should be prepared separately, ideally with completely separate pots, pans, and utensils. The allergen-free meal should be delivered either by a different person or separate from the rest of the food. Ideally, whoever cooked the meal brings it out, further limiting the potential for cross-contact. This helps to mitigate the risk of cross-contact.
Cooking
In the event you are cooking other foods containing the relevant allergen(s) for your other dinner party guests, I would suggest using completely separate utensils and cooking vessels. You can alternatively, thoroughly wash anything you use with soap and water between cooking allergen safe and unsafe foods. However, this can get a bit unwieldy, so do whichever works best for your kitchen setup and device and utensil availability.
Serving
Prepare the allergen-free food completely separate from anything that is not allergen-free. If you are serving the food individually, make sure that the allergen-free food is brought out on its own. Buffet set-ups pose slightly increased risk since your guests are touching handles, dishes, and potentially food. For a buffet set-up, I would suggest using a separate table or surface for the allergen-free food and clearly labeling it as such. I would suggest going a step further and labeling or otherwise identifying serving utensils as well so that guests don’t accidentally cause cross-contact.
Treat “just a touch” as severely as if whatever it is was doused in the allergen, wash thoroughly to remove any allergens, and keep your allergen-free zone clear.
Now You’re Ready to Host an Allergy Friendly Dinner Party
I know we’ve covered a lot of ground, but I hope that armed with this information, you feel confident that you can host an allergy-safe dinner party for any of your guests. While it may seem daunting at first, this is one of those challenges that you can “plan your way out of.” As with any dinner party, use this information to provide some guardrails and just have fun.
References
General References
“What is a Food Allergy?” FARE, 25 July 2023, https://www.foodallergy.org/resources/what-food-allergy.
“Food Allergy Myths and Misconceptions.” FARE, 25 July 2023, www.foodallergy.org/resources/food-allergy-myths-and-misconceptions.
“How to Read A Food Label.” FARE, 25 July 2023, www.foodallergy.org/resources/how-read-food-label.
Specific Quotes
1 “Food Allergy Myths and Misconceptions.” FARE, 25 July 2023, www.foodallergy.org/resources/food-allergy-myths-and-misconceptions.
Disclaimer:
The opinions expressed herein are my own. I am not a medical professional and nothing herein should be construed as medical advice. If you are in need of medical advice, you should consult with a licensed medical professional.
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