‘Restaurants here need to cater for allergy sufferers’
A LOCAL student away at university has called on restaurants and cafes in Guernsey to improve their service and food options when it comes to catering for people need to eat gluten-free food.
Charlotte Green, 20, has coeliac disease – a condition where the person’s immune system attacks their own tissues when they eat gluten. This means that she cannot eat staple items like bread, pasta and many types of cereal, instead having to find gluten-free alternatives.
Miss Green, who studies media and communications at the University of Winchester, said that she had been inspired to try and increase awareness of coeliac disease in Guernsey ever since being diagnosed last summer, and has been impressed by measures put in place by restaurants in the UK.
‘Compared to Guernsey, UK restaurants are better at making you feel comfortable from the moment you walk in the door,’ she said.
‘They ask you straight away if you have any allergies, and do things like mark your table and serve your food separately. This makes me feel more confident about eating out.’
Miss Green acknowledged that implementing additional measures may prove challenging for local restaurants, but encouraged them to do more to make people with coeliac disease feel safer.
‘It’s not necessarily a criticism because I understand that it is difficult to cater for absolutely everybody, and places do their best,’ she said.
‘However, when you see restaurants putting a lot of effort into highlighting their vegan selection for example, and not doing as much for their gluten-free menu, it’s frustrating because being coeliac isn’t a choice, we need that extra safety net.’
Miss Green hopes to raise continued awareness of coeliac disease through social media. She posts regularly on TikTok and Instagram, highlighting which restaurants she has been particularly impressed with, as well as recipe ideas and reviews of gluten-free food she has tried.
She has also recently launched her own website which she uses to share content about being newly diagnosed.
To find out more about Miss Green’s experiences with coeliac disease, visit her website: https://charlottemgreen9.wixsite.com/coeliac-charlotte
