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?

Does your daughter not know she's not supposed to have chocolate?

A couple of years ago a restaurant owner was jailed for six years for manslaughter due to allergies. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-36360111. That was more than just a slip up which I guess can happen even to a very careful parent in their home kitchen. But even so is a reminder of the serious consequences...

I don’t understand..... you’ve written twice that you passed the ice cream to your daughter - so how did you not notice they were brown sprinkles not multicoloured?

Your poor DD.

We have problems at ice cream places too as DS is allergic to raw egg but not cooked egg. Home made ice cream and some fancy gelato has raw egg but lots of other ice creams just say 'egg' and it's almost impossible to get information about whether the egg is cooked or not. Luckily cheap ice cream and Mr Whippy is fine!

I have a friend who is allergic to a lot of things with varying degrees of serousness. There are some things that can kill her. When I've eaten out with her she checks with the staff that what she's ordered doesn't contain any of her more serious allergens. She makes it VERY clear that if she has any of them she could die. That seems to get their attention.

Some people can be a bit careless. She used to be vegetarian. And once ordered a veggie pasta and mince dish. She was eating it and thought the veggie mince was quite tasty. Then realised it was meat. Mistakes are ade. But can be dangerous when people are allergic

I used to have a friend who would die from this. Within seconds his windpipe would have closed over.

He was pretty worried constantly in case of contamination.

Did the cafe know the difference between "non-dairy" and "dairy-free" as they aren't the same thing? I had this problem many years ago, but luckily my daughter was dairy intolerant rather than having an allergy. The cafe just assumed that "non-dairy" meant it would be ok.

Local news and social media. They'll take notice if it starts losing them other customers.

was it the sprinkles - were they chocolate - if so and you passed it to her and did not check they were dairy free (and it was a server who might not know) I think you may need to see this as a lesson learnt

The manager has confirmed the sprinkles contain dairy.
Presumably when you were questioning him/her about this you told him which sprinkles you were served, so how did you do this if you didn't see them?
In any case, you asked for the sprinkles assuming they would be the same ones she had before.
I think the onus is on you to check all the ingredients if the allergy is severe, not assume that cafes always buy the exact same products.

If the establishment offers dairy free ice cream they should have some idea what cross contamination means and how to avoid it. All staff should be trained and vigilant.

We have a pizza restaurant near us that offers a delicious black rice flour base but they don't advertise it on their website and at pains to quickly point out that is not gluten free because they don't have a seperate oven so cannot control contamination from the standard pizzas.

This is fine for us because while a pizza would make my son very sick, he can tolerate small amounts of gluten. My younger son is allergic to sesame and peanuts and there is one eastern foods restaurant we trust because the food is cooked in front of us and they use separate pans and food preparation areas and change their gloves before they start.

Most chocolate sprinkles do not contain any dairy.

Sounds like a genuine mistake. You should absolutely contact management and ask them to redo training with all staff and have colour coordinated utensils for allergies and never cross contaminate. Also hand washing and gloves. Hope DD is better now.

wendywoowho
Why is my daughter not supposed to have chocolate? She has it all the time.
Loads of products contain chocolate without the milk.

Please let me explain the sprinkles thing again coz it's unclear.
Chatting to staff discussing which ice creams and cones contain what ...
Asked for multicoloured non dairy sprinkles my daughter had before.
Continued chatting. Was in conversation when the ice cream was passed to me and then passed straight to my (very hot) daughter assuming that the person (who it appeared is actually one of the managers) had got it right when I'd already mentioned several times that she is allergic to dairy.
HOWEVER I have now been in contact with the manager who stated 'they will now get a scoop that's solely for the non-dairy' so I'm thinking cross-contamination.
I will never ever go to a new cafe again.
Too much risk. Such a shame as I love supporting independent businesses but sadly the best and safest way to go is..... chain (in my experience)

Still not clear how you didn't know what sprinkles were on an ice cream that went into your hand which you then passed on to your kid.

Op its not your fault. Mistakes are made you are human. You assumed they would have understood dairy free meant everything had to be dairy free and clearly they didnt cotton on. How is DD feeling now?

miggeldy the op was distracted talking. It happens she assumed they would have picked the correct sprinkles and handed then to DD without looking. People do it all the time it was a mistake.

the op was distracted talking. It happens she assumed they would have picked the correct sprinkles and handed then to DD without looking. People do it all the time it was a mistake

It doesn't happen all the time with a dairy allergic child in an ice cream parlour! and if it does you don't complain about the shop, you instead are morto that you didnt pay attention to what you were giving your child.

Why is my daughter not supposed to have chocolate? She has it all the time.
Loads of products contain chocolate without the milk.

Majority of chocolate products are milk chocolate though so will contain milk. Most white chocolate contains milk solids and milk has been found in some dark chocolate which may even state 'dairy-free'
If you daughter doesn't know the difference I think this could be quite dangerous for her if her allergy is bad that cross contamination is making her unwell.

The icecream parlour are in the wrong here. The op has every right to be upset. Its easy for people with no experience of allergies to judge other people. Op specified no dairy. That included everything.

turns out they are, but not for the reason OP thought, and if she had been right it would have been equally her fault.

Its easy for people with no experience of allergies to judge other people

Why would you assume that? Very silly of you.

Dairy allergy. A serious one.
And you take her to an ice cream cafe.
The mind boggles.

Not silly at all. My dbro has a bad peanut allergy and people woefully misunderstand what that means and try give him food with nuts in. Cross contamination should not happen in food industries.

Mandchester mcdonalds have had trouble recently because their buns have been cross contaminated with nuts.