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?

PleaseDontGoadTheToad but custard and Yorkshire pud too...

I would tell the cafe the effect it’s had on you and your lo- if they have any sense at all they will offer to compensate-
Food sellers legally should know what contains each allergen - but milk is so hidden in all sorts of strange ways that it’s esp problematic. The staff need educating!

It's been handed over to trading standards, who called me today.
They are going to be educating and working with the cafe to help prevent anyone else from being affected by the owners ignorance. Update - still no separate scoops.

I think one of the issues nowadays could be due to the popularity of the vegan lifestyle and vegetarianism. as I would expect some food places are probably advertising dairy free to that market (which is huge) and may not necessarily be thinking of dairy free because of allergies and obviously cross contamination isn’t such an issue for a Vegan making a lifestyle choice.

Must be very tough having a daughter with a severe allergy, especially now eating out is such a big part of life and socialising. Hope your dd is ok.

They are going to be educating and working with the cafe to help prevent anyone else from being affected by the owners ignorance. Update - still no separate scoops

Thats great OP, I hope you are similarly going to learn from this incident?

Miggedy: yes but my post was to a poster asking what symptoms and was it even a real allergy or ‘just intolerance’.

Miggeldy
Unfortunately this experience has made me realise that, (in the words of the trading standards person I spoke to this morning), a cafe is only as good as it's weakest member of staff.
Won't mean we never go to cafes anymore but more likely to be ones where there are no dairy products on site....

Miggeldy I just saw your 'joint responsibility' post.... have to say that I don't agree with that.
I had faith that the cafe staff have been trained in basic food hygiene & understood the importance of separate utensils & an understanding of what 'my daughter can't have dairy' means.
They didn't.
If I hadn't mentioned her allergy then yes, joint responsibility.

I had lunch at a posh London club recently and had ordered a dairy free meal. They'd messed up our order and tried to give me the stroganoff (which generally contains dairy so I asked the waiter to check and yes it did).
I waited for about 15 mins for a dairy free meal.
When it came to dessert the same waiter tried to give me a creme brulee so I asked for the fruit salad.
And when that arrived he asked me if I wanted cream on it !

Some people really don't get it !!

Completely agree with the OP that a food place is only as good as its weakest member of staff....

If you ask for dairy free then the cafe owner or person serving you has a legally obligation to ensure they sell you dairy free. Even if they add sprinkles . Your local council have a free from adviser for food businesses. Contact trading standards before someone dies

Kitchensinkmum
Please see my previous posts
It's been handed over to Trading Standards

@kitchensinkmum that's not quite true, because there is no legal obligation to have a dairy free option. They are obliged legally to inform the customer of which products do and do not contain which allergen, and to inform them of whether there is a risk of cross contamination - ingredients can have a 'may contain' so even if the food outlet is operating best practice, in those circumstances they could not guarantee something is free from the substance at issue.

If they have claimed that something is dairy free and have made no mention of cross contamination or may contains, if the customer then buys that product based on the information given, then yes, it must be as advertised. If they are up front about being unable to prevent cross-contamination (happens a lot with gluten) it is down to the customer to decide whether the potential consequences make them decide to go elsewhere. Personally I keep a strict eye on cross-contamination, and will pick the server up on it if I spot something dodgy going on, but that's because I have seen some really stupid behaviour from people over the years.

My DS has a nut allergy, I don't let him eat in ice cream cafes as the risk of cross contamination is too high. I can choose an ice cream that doesn't contain nuts but no guarantee that the same scoop hasn't been used in one containing nuts. It just isn't worth the risk.

I have celiac disease and can't eat gluten (wheat, barley and rye). It's different to a wheat allergy but loads of places make this mistake. I had a GF Japanese meal and they gave me soy sauce which had barley in. I have had GF fish and chips and then they poured malt vinegar on it which has barley in. I have to check everything in detail because some servers just don't get it!

Really?? An ice cream shop a no-go?? How about businesses should train their staff properly. Why should anyone lose out because of someone else's sloppy practices? Maybe people with latex allergies should stay away from hospitals, or people with nut allergies shouldn't go to restaurants - obviously i am being sarcastic here but what an insensitive comment! OP I'm so sorry this has happened, similar has happened to me too and it isn't funny. I hope your LO is ok, and please do report. It could have been lethal for someone

Is this you OP ?

Woman calls 999 over ice cream sprinkles
www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-27691809/woman-calls-999-over-ice-cream-sprinkles

So - the up-shot of all this is likely to be that the cafe owner will just put up a little sign somewhere that says ''please be aware that although we sell dairy free ice cream all our ice cream may contain traces of dairy'' and that will be that. Scoops will still be stuck in willy nilly.

Legal absolution.

Hi, I would complain. we started working with our son at that age to also question to make sure it was okay. We used to say to not trust us 100% either as mistakes happen. Not putting the responsibility on your DD but teaching her to question for her own safety. we also started to have our ds read labels with us once he could read. It has saved us a couple of times as he has twin younger sisters and sometimes I was all over the place. I would also write a letter or complaint.