California will become the first state in the nation requiring restaurants to list major food allergens on their menus starting in 2026 under a new law.
This is good, but I wish it included suppliers. Too many restaurants don’t actually know if some of their ingredients — especially processed ingredients like flour — may have been cross contaminated and don’t want to statements about certain things as a result. I worry this will result in false sense of safety by consumers with allergies because the restaurant doesn’t use it directly but uses a contaminated ingredient, or restaurants listing all potential major allergens on everything to cover themselves.
This is good, but I wish it included suppliers. Too many restaurants don’t actually know if some of their ingredients — especially processed ingredients like flour — may have been cross contaminated and don’t want to statements about certain things as a result. I worry this will result in false sense of safety by consumers with allergies because the restaurant doesn’t use it directly but uses a contaminated ingredient, or restaurants listing all potential major allergens on everything to cover themselves.
Their suppliers should already have that information available, especially if they also sell their products to consumers.