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.