It is a challenge to eat out in Guernsey if you have an allergy

I am writing to you as someone with a severe allergy. Having recently been diagnosed with coeliac disease, I am finding it quite challenging to eat out in Guernsey due to the lack of procedures and lack of choice restaurants and hotels offer for people with allergies.

Coeliac disease is a life-long auto-immune disease which means whenever you eat gluten your body attacks itself leading to your small-intestine being damaged. It is estimated that about one in 100 people have coeliac disease (according to Coeliac UK) although the actual figure is thought to be higher and potentially up to one in three people.

The only known current cure is to stay on a gluten-free diet which includes ensuring there is no cross contamination, so not using the same toaster as one that has gluten toast in (easily resolved by using toaster bags) or using separate utensils.

I have found there is a lack of selection with gluten-free options when eating out locally. While some restaurants have plenty of choice, others don’t have many, or don’t appear to, as they do not mark it on their menus. This deters people who suffer from serious allergies from even trying to go out, as they need to feel that the environment they’re eating out in is safe – especially those who have an anaphylactic reaction.

As someone who is recently diagnosed, I have noticed that restaurants supply ample choice for vegans (for which being vegan is generally a choice) and this includes a good choice for those who are dairy-free or lactose intolerant too. For most people, being gluten-free is not a choice, it is a way of life that many people must stick to for health reasons. This has only really come to my attention since being diagnosed with coeliac disease.

I appreciate introducing new menu items or altering menus isn’t easy. However, it would make menus more inclusive, and potentially branch out to a whole market. I appreciate that generally there are a few options, however, it would be nice to have a few more easily adaptable gluten-free meals to encourage more coeliacs to eat out and feel safe while doing so.

This is by no means meant as a complaint or criticism. It is just an observation from experience. I would love to see more gluten-free options introduced on menus so people who need to eat gluten-free can still enjoy food without feeling like they can’t, or there is no choice.

I am currently at university in the UK, and I have noticed that UK restaurants are very good at asking if you have any allergies as soon as you walk through the door of their establishment. For me, this is such a good thing to do because it makes you feel welcome and not an inconvenience.

Another example of UK restaurants catering for allergies is that they often have QR codes at the bottom of their menus so you can scan to view the allergens in certain dishes. This means you can look for yourself at what is available rather than having to ask a server. It makes the guest feel less like an inconvenience and saves waiting staff’s time.

From one specific experience at Ask Italian (an Italian restaurant chain in the UK) as soon as they know you have an allergy, they put a different table stand on the table highlighting to waiting staff that there are people with allergies on that table. They then give you a completely separate menu (whether you have any allergy) and take your order first to provide maximum safety. As a customer, this made me feel really safe and that I could trust the restaurant to prepare my food in the correct way without it being contaminated. The plate was also marked with a sticker confirming ‘non-gluten’.

I would love to see procedures like this placed in restaurants across Guernsey to help anyone with allergies eating out feel safer. This could just be the simple difference of marking all allergens on a menu in a separate booklet or having a specific table stand when someone with an allergy is eating at a table or asking someone if they have an allergy before seating them at a table. I appreciate making changes like this is not necessarily easy, however, it would make restaurants so much more inclusive and safer for everyone. In addition, I am happy to assist with any potential changes you wish to make. A lot of these changes are free to make (for example asking people if they have any allergies) or relatively cheap (like different table stands).

I look forward to hearing back from you.

Charlotte Green

Meadow Lodge

Rue Des Marais

Vale

GY6 8AU

Email: charlottemgreen9@gmail.com

Instagram: @coeliacharlotte

TikTok: @coeliaccharlotte