Food Freedom, Good Policy, and the Quiet Power of Being Safe at the Table

“Sister! You have food freedom here!”

The words left my mouth after I swallowed the perfect bite of fish from my basket of fish and chips. I was sitting with my sister, who, as an Irish citizen, was acting as my tour guide through her beautiful country. We had stopped in Portrush, Northern Ireland, at a restaurant called The Kraken — highly recommend — and as a pair of travelers with celiac disease, we regularly risk illness simply trying to get dinner.

But in Ireland, I discovered a wealth of safe food sources: kitchens and trained staff who understood what gluten was, where it is found, how to avoid it, and how to communicate risk and liability to customers in quick, quiet words.

Even the Derry/Londonderry airport!

All of this happened without shaming or embarrassing the customer, and without threatening the restaurant’s bottom line. At every stop, I found menus advising customers to speak with their servers about unique food needs. I found servers who were able to say, clearly and confidently, “Yes, this item is gluten-free. However, we do have a shared kitchen, so we cannot guarantee against cross-contamination.” That sentence matters! It is safety. It is transparency. It is informed consent. It is risk communication. It is policy in practice.

It is important to note that I religiously use apps like Find Me Gluten Free to help identify restaurants that may pose a higher or lower risk for me. So I cannot say every restaurant in Ireland is able to provide this information or this level of safety. But every restaurant I encountered did. I also did a lot of homework with my family — this is a genetic disease, after all — to map safety before and during our trip.

In most of these restaurants, it was clear that staff had been specifically trained to answer allergy questions in a specific way, to ask their own questions in clear terms, and, when in doubt, to check with the kitchen and learn more. In some cases, the on-duty manager visited the table to check in, answer additional questions, or even deliver allergy-specific dishes themselves.

As a policy-in-practice professional, I can see good policy in practice when it is right in front of me. And I celebrate it, particularly when my safety is on the line.

I had dishes delivered on different colored plates from the rest of the party, specifically indicating that the plate had come from a different preparation process in the restaurant. I had dishes delivered with flagged toothpicks indicating an allergy and requiring special handling. At one restaurant, I was handed a tablet that allowed me to filter out every dish on the menu containing gluten. A traveling companion with a beef allergy and another with a chicken allergy could do the same. That simple tool saved me from having to disclose a medical condition in a crowded restaurant while still allowing me to feel confident in my food choices.

Have you ever had to do that?

Have you ever had to disclose your private medical diagnosis to your meal server before even thinking about what you might like to eat? Have you ever had a server ask whether your food need is a lifestyle choice or a medical condition? Imagine asking for a diet soda and having your server ask whether you are a Type 2 diabetic or whether choosing a diet soda is just a personal preference. It sounds ridiculous when we say it that way. But for people with celiac disease, food allergies, and other medically necessary dietary restrictions, this type of disclosure happens all the time.

As a person with celiac disease, I am often required to disclose my medical condition multiple times a day whenever I leave my house for a meal. As a small business owner, wife, mother, and human being, that happens with frequency. If I want to order a beverage at the local coffee shop that is a little more than black coffee — maybe oat milk, matcha, or a latte with vanilla flavor — I have to ask detailed questions about every aspect of the drink.

So I often order drip coffee and leave it at that.

Everything can pose a risk. Even biodegradable straws and utensils require questions, because wheat can be used in some materials, and exposure may result in horrible illness or even the need for emergency medical care.

And I know it is scary, as a business owner in the food industry, to think about serving a world full of people with food allergies and medical dietary needs. Nut allergies. Meat allergies. Gluten. Sugars. Root vegetables. Strawberries. Onions. The list goes on and on.

It can feel like a trust fall to serve people every day. And those people must trustingly order from you in return.

So how do you do what you love?

And how do your customers do what they love — eat, gather, celebrate, travel, and belong — when the entire process feels fraught?

Here is where I may sound bold:

Good policy practiced for good. That means having a well-written, living policy that is regularly trained, clearly understood, and practiced without fail in every moment of service.

Forever. It is a high bar. I know. But for many people, it is life and death. And it will affect your bottom line.

In this series, we will pick it apart and explore food freedom from a policy perspective.

Because food safety is not just a kitchen issue. It is a communication issue. A training issue. A leadership issue. A liability issue. A customer experience issue. And, when done well, it is good policy practiced for good.

Connect with me. We can achieve good policy practiced for good.