Ice cream cafe has given my daughter a dairy free ice cream.. with dairy in it. Livid!

[Cleothelabrador]

Hello
I don't think I'm being unreasonable, just posting here for traffic.
My daughter is 5, has a dairy allergy and reacts badly when she has even very small amount.
We've just been for ice cream where I did the usual cone/ice cream ingredients check & repeated about 3 times that she can't have dairy. As I always do. Especially as this happened at a different cafe before.
I used to ask for ingredients but it all felt a bit neurotic & I stopped. I'll start again now.
They put some sprinkles on the top which I didn't see & my daughter told me about after severe sore throat, tummy ache, sore skin & swollen eye... I asked for the ingredients of the ice cream and they told me & stated no dairy so it was almost def the sprinkles. We left and then ran into the manager later on & I told him what had happened & he agreed the sprinkles have dairy in.
We swapped phone numbers.
Last time I reported to trading standards and never went there again.
This time I know I should do the same but it doesn't seem enough.
My daughter is now asleep.
Her whole day has been ruined and that's so unfair. Also potentially tomorrow, a day she has been looking forward for weeks, & have pre-paid for an expensive day out & taken the day off work. WWYD?
For so many, dairy can be fatal.
Why do so many places get away with this?

The onus shouldn’t be on the sufferer. We have laws and regulations in the UK. Anyone serving food should know what of the 5 top allergens each item contains.
People drive me nuts asking ‘can you eat this with that allergy? I don’t know until i’ve Checked to label.
If you have stated dairy allergy then you should expect your food to be safe.

I asked for sprinkles stating the multicoloured ones she's had before

If it was thesprinkles, then wouldn’t the server assume you knew what you were doing when you asked for a specific sort?

You specifically asked for sprinkles. Sadly there is a large number of people who claim to be allergic to Dairy who still eat it in small amounts which means the server (who is likely to be a stressed out teenager on a bank holiday Monday) probably presumed she was OK to have small amounts and didn't think to query your request amongst the several things they had been asked for in the past 5 minutes.

I don’t think sprinkles usually contain dairy? I have a couple of tubs in the cupboard and none of them contain dairy. I would think it would be more likely to be cross contamination. The scoops aren’t washed between flavours.

Tbh you asked for ice cream and multi coloured sprinkles... you got what you asked for.

You said you didn't see them give her the sprinkles then later say that you asked for them ???

Yes it should screaming as stated previously seemingly innocuous products like a pineapple and coconut fruit juice contains cows milk. Would you automatically think it was safe or check the packaging?

Would you assume a mango smoothie had no orange juice in it?

Would you expect a chocolate cake to be nut free?

You can't blindly assume. All the above products had allergens in them that even the servers were unaware of until we got the packaging out the kitchens.

OP, my friends dd has an allergy to dairy, she gave up in the end.
you need to be so careful with cafe's and a bad idea to even consider chocolate or ice cream, even if sold as Dairy free.

I hope your dd is ok for tomorrow, you should be able to trust places to get it right, but as they can't you need to avoid for your daughters sake.

If you asked for the sprinkles, didn't check that they were dairy free sprinkles, and your daughter got the sprinkles you asked for, this is on you, sorry.

Thing is, places that just sell ice cream (ice vans, ice cream cafes, etc) are the worst for ice cream when you have allergies. They tend to just have one or two big spoons that they dunk in water and use on different types of ice cream. You're far less likely to have the same cross-contamination issue in a restaurant run by a proper chef who doesn't put up with that kind of laziness.

It's not fair having to avoid ice cream places when you have allergies, but... those are just the cards that life has dealt you. I feel sorry for your DD, but you took a risk in going to an ice cream cafe and you lost.

YWNBU to push for better training/awareness among the staff, but YWBU to expect much more. And before anyone accuses me of not taking the DD's allergies seriously - I've been hospitalised from cross-contaminated ice cream before. I learnt my lesson the hard way.

I'm not sure I follow: you asked for sprinkles, they gave you sprinkles, she ate the sprinkles.....where have they done anything wrong there? Did you ask them to check the ingredients of the sprinkles, did you specifically ask if they knew they were dairy free? It doesn't sound like it. Plus sprinkles don't generally contain dairy and I can't imagine why they would.

I don't think that the cafe could be seen as at fault when you asked for the sprinkles tbh. They gave you what you asked for and would have assumed that you knew they were safe.
My dd has anaphylaxis to fish I would never eat with her in or buy her anything from a chip shop because of cross contamination and would imagine it's the same in an ice cream shop if you have a dairy allergy.

Yes, sprinkles can contain dairy - I'm dairy free. The problem is that other people don't realise the multitude of things that can contain allergens.
Orange juice: no dairy right? This orange juice is fortified with calcium so guess what? Yeah dairy in that.
Jelly sweets: some have dairy
Salad: Not suitable for milk allergy sufferers. Er what???
Chicken breasts: some have dairy
Sausages: some have dairy
Wine: may contain milk. I'm sorry, are you insane? Why would wine have milk anywhere near it
I could go on for half the day, but you get my point.

I hope DD is feeling much better soon.

Maybe the daughter was given chocolate sprinkles instead? OP said she didn’t see the sprinkles actually get added or before they were eaten.

It sounds like an accident. I'm sure if you just complained to the manager in writing that would be sufficient.

Trading standards sounds harsh imo. You risk closing a business with many innocent employees and lives that need to be funded.

It also seems a little silly to take your daughter to an ice cream place if her reactions are that strong to such small amounts. Sure in an ideal world you'd be able to but mistakes happen sometimes and with such a strong reaction why would you risk it

I wouldn't think hundreds and thousands contained milk tbh.
If you said yes to them, neither did you.
People don't understand allergies, and I think the gluten and dairy free lifestyle choices becoming popular hasn't helped educate people.

Wine: may contain milk. I'm sorry, are you insane? Why would wine have milk anywhere near it

insane? No, just a basic understanding of how wine is made. Fish bladders, egg white, milk etc are all used to fine a wine, to remove sediment. Wine has always been made this way. Just buy vegan wine, there is plenty of it around.

Did you check whether the sprinkles were dairy free before letting your daughter eat them?

Ice cream could have been rolled in sprinkles where dairy ices have been rolled before . Hope she’s alright OP.

Thank you @MiggeldyHiggins. I stand corrected. That explains a lot about my reaction to some wine. You learn something new every day

Thanks for all the replies
Egg yes what you said

Maybe the daughter was given chocolate sprinkles instead? OP said she didn’t see the sprinkles actually get added or before they were eaten.

As I explained earlier I asked for the multicoloured ones I had before and they put the chocolate ones on. I passed to my daughter and she ate them off the top straight away then told me they were chocolate after the reaction BUT I agree with the people who said perhaps it was cross-contamination.
I think it was.

I also just saw this article.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/shahida-shahid-inquest-dairy-allergy-buttermilk-chicken-burger-death-manchester-almost-famous-a8149646.html%3famp

Shocking! So sad that this can happen and feel so relieved my daughter's allergy isn't this extreme

Poor little poppet.

I hope she’s feeling well enough for your day out tomorrow. If not, give them a call & hopefully they’ll rebook it for you. If not, tell the café you expect them to cover the cost of rebooking.

There’s NO such thing as ‘just an accident’ WRT to allergies, or you might have ‘just an accidental death’. It’s NOT OK for places serving food to be blasé

What a wee shame for your dd.

I don’t understand though - were the sprinkles multicoloured chocolate ones?