AIBU to feel disappointed at this restaurant's reaction to my complaint?

[Whatadrop]

DD has a food allergy.

Early December we went out for a family meal at a well known, chain, high street restaurant. I rang the venue before to let them know. We told them again when we arrived and told the waiter again when ordering her food.

On the way home from the meal DD suddenly fell unwell and it became apparent that she had consumed her allergy food during the meal. The food that was given to her was given to her in error and her allergen food had not been removed from the meal. DD was unwell for almost 10 days.

I emailed the chain immediately. It took them 6 days to respond. They said they would look into it. In the mean time I contacted the Food Agency to notify them. They said it wasn't their department and they did not deal with such situations and to instead told me to notify Trading Standards.

In the mean time I contacted the chain again for an update to which they responded they had notified Food Agency who were now investigating and they would let me know the outcome of that.

I, for some reason, feel unhappy and I can't put my finger on why. I feel they're perhaps not taking it seriously. It's now been almost a month since the incident.

@Popcorn and @NicoandtheNiners - have you looked into Mast Cell Activation Disorder? This can wreak havoc as it raises histamine throughout your body and means you become allergic to all sorts of random things. Histamine levels rise and fall so you can react to say apples one day and then not at all next day. It is an awful condition to deal with. Lots of people survive by eating one food only or one type of food only such as meat, others are tube fed. It can go alongside hypermobility or Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. Have a google and hope this helps.

I clearly stated why I don't want to name the place. No need to be arsey about it.

Yes, we are 100% certain it was caused by the restaurant food. Not a shadow of doubt.

^You made a complaint - they are dealing with it - what else do you expect them to do at this point?

I would expect them to show a degree of urgency in dealing with an issue of this type. If one of their restaurants is operating unsafe practices, every day they waste messing around means that that restaurant is putting other customers in danger^

Exactly this ^

Their lack of urgency has concerned me. It took them almost a week to even reply to my first complaint.

Allergies can kill - god knows there have been cases in the news recently when this has happened. I would have assumed they would have got back you you ASAP (assuming the email title caught their eye). Maybe it just went into a general ‘complaints’ email box and no one was checking.

Either way I’d expect a better response.

I know 17 people who say they're allergic to gluten. ONE has been diagnosed with celiacs.

Every single one of the others will every now and then get drunk and have a slice of pizza or a bit of birthday cake.

@RedforShort Obviously I don't know the context of what you are talking about but if someone is an arse, the dietary stuff is just the excuse. Most people in life don't behave like that and if they do, it's because they're a twat not because they have noticed that they feel unwell if they eat certain things.

@mrsclausisdrunk But what has that got to do with you?

I'm astounded that you know all these people who say that they're allergic to stuff, when they aren't. I've never met a single one, but I do know lots of people who don't eat certain things, some because they don't like them, some because having one portion makes them feel unwell, some because they're on a diet, some because they make ethical decisions, some because they have coeliacs, some because eating too much makes them feel unwell, and they just get on with life.

I also know a lot of people who eat a restricted diet because they don't like certain food and yet will criticise the notion of dietary intolerance as snowflake / woke / too much time of their hands etc. On all counts - it has nothing to do with anyone else, don't like it? don't eat it and don't cook for them. If you're paid to cook for them, be respectful and allow them to decide what they eat, if you don't want to do that maybe you're in the wrong job?

Mrs Claus - I have a bowel condition and a hormonal condition. At certain times, I can't even touch gluten without a severe impact on my life. Sometimes I can just about tolerate it, so will absolutely have that slice of pizza or cake.

People who know me have no idea about the ins and outs of my bowels, and when I'm in a flare, I am intolerant to gluten, which I will state if I am eating out. I'm not a celiac.

What other people choose to do has fuck all to do with you and might be for reasons they don't want to discuss.

HTH.

I'm not diagnosed with gluten intolerance but my ibs is triggered by it. About an hour later I will be literally screaming into a towel whilst the world falls out of my bum.

I don't get why gluten is added to so much food. I have to cook from scratch or I would be housebound and unable to work due to not being able to go more than 5 mins away from the loo.

I tend now to eat just plain meat and green veg. It's safer.

I put in a complaint to the Hilton about a cake they served DS 17 at the time i think. They never got back to me despite , me emailing them and then facebooking them, (they said email) which i did again. Never ever got a reply.

I can understand why some people don't pursue an official coeliac diagnosis. You have to carry on eating gluten while waiting and currently it's around a six month waiting list for the endoscopy. If it makes you feel so unwell does it matter if you have the label? The only treatment is to stop eating gluten which you can do regardless. The only benefit is prescription bread and some areas have stopped that.

Dd has an official diagnosis. My SIL doesn't have an official diagnosis but gluten makes her just as poorly as it does dd (copious projectile vomiting).

Some friends of mine though reckon they're gluten free or at least "cutting down on gluten" and will happily eat the expensive GF pasta/bread I have in the house. But when it comes to ordering a Dominos and the GF pizza is smaller, more expensive and tastes horrible funnily enough they always forget their GF needs at that point!

@dailyshite Did you actually read my post?

They aren't on a diet or making ethical choices.

They make a huge fuss about not having a stitch of gluten in their food as they actually SAY they are allergic. People bend over backwards to cater for them when cooking and it's bloody annoying when you see them tucking in to a pizza/piece of cake at another time.

As I said, one actually has celiac's and I know it truly is awful. It pisses them off that so many of our friends claim to suffer from the same when they actually don't.

It does have something to do with me when so many people around here are claiming to be allergic that food places are starting to not take it seriously and it could badly affect my very good friend that actually is terribly allergic.

So here

I don’t have good allergy but I have some very very serious medicine allergies. People never believe me!!! I came home once and my mother in law had given my (step) son (my kids can’t have it incase they have an ana reaction too) it in a liquid bottle then leaked the stuff all over the side in the kitchen and left the lid off. I literally couldn’t do anything and my kitchen was out of bounds until oh got home to clean it up and get it the fuck out my house! I couldn’t even kiss my boy Goodnight!

However now I’ve realised how much hatred she has for me I fully assume she was actually trying to kill me.
I also have a bee sting allergy and my previous boss kept trying to make me clean the bee traps outside. Um, I think not, nearly walked out that day.

I can’t even imagine what it’s like for food allergies.

@WhyDontYouComeOnOver

I know these people well. They don't have IBS or similar health issues.

They also have varying other food intolerances at varying times.

I do live in the States where I think there can be many more good dads than the UK.

OP without naming the restaurant can you say the dish your DD ate?

"I do live in the States where I think there can be many more good dads than the UK."

Was that meant to say food fads?

I know these people well. They don't have IBS or similar health issues

You know 17 people well enough to know the inner workings of their bowels?

Even my closest friends and family don't know about my issues, so I doubt that very much.

@InsomniacAnonymous yes!!! Oops!

Good grief! The ignorance around food allergies is saddening to say the least - so many idiots think people are whining over nothing. Allergies kill - educate yourselves!

I hope you get a satisfactory answer from them OP - you deserve it and I completely understand why you want one!

mrsclaus - feel free to keep the biscuit, I don't eat them.

A number of people on here have demonstrated the points that you are trying desperately hard to not understand. Sadly, it is people like you who make life really irritating and difficult for people who try to look after their own health because they understand it and don't necessarily need a diagnosis to manage it. Trying to hide behind your friend when the issue is actually people like you who think they know people better than they know themselves is really low. I'd be pretty pissed off with you if you were a friend of mineI were him / her.

Email again and ask for it to be escalated? To their ..... Area Manager?

I dealt with county council recently. Endless phone calls and emails, asking for it to be escalated, complaint. So painful!

These situations should be taken more seriously. My cousin’s daughter has coeliac disease and has been ill on a number of occasions after being served supposedly safe food while out.

dailyshite I've seen someone decline a bread roll saying they couldn't eat any gluten, and then tuck into soup that had a very high chance of having gluten in without asking a single question. They weren't looking after their own individual health, they just didn't know what the fuck they were talking about. It's people like that that mean restaurants take genuine coeliacs less seriously.

Our local prezzos didn’t have an allergy menu and served dairy to a dairy intolerant person despite it being made very clear and being assured it was dairy free. Head office never even bothered to reply to my complaint

I think you should take your complaint to high management and state that you expect a proper investigation into a potentially dangerous situation.
I suffer from anaphylaxis to wheat protein and nuts over last 5 years and have been in resus numerous times. This has been challenging to eat out and I have recently dealt with a steak chain in London who made a mistake on their allergy menu staying that it was a wheat free dish when it wasnt.Luckily I triple checked with staff before I would eat it as I felt the staff lacked confidence in dealing with severe allergies. I complained to the operational manager of the whole chain and the response was immediate. 2 weeks later i had a complimentary meal and was met by 3 executives who explained the measures they had taken to prevent mistakes happening again.
Corporate manslaughter is a good term to quote to remind restaurants of their responsibilty.

jaffacake2

I think you should take your complaint to high management and state that you expect a proper investigation into a potentially dangerous situation.
In our case they just refused to answer emails and i couldnt get through on phone either

Contact them again with copies of the original messages staying that you expect a response due to the seriousness of the incident . It maybe that they are going through their own processes rather than ignoring you but they should still keep you informed. I would give them a time limit and then say that you will be seeking further advice,indicating legal.
Good luck and sorry that your daughter suffered through their negligence.