How it started

Cater Allergy Safer – how it started

Having grown up navigating food allergies and intolerances, Stella realised at quite an early age that she would need to learn to prepare her own food. The best way for her to do this was to go to catering college. After 2 years in college, learning the industry, Stella worked in many hotels, hospitals, schools, pubs and supermarkets.

Between 2005 and 2010, Stella studied nutrition, qualifying as a Nutritional Adviser, to pin down the culprit of her sickness, but there were still no definite conclusions.

The original idea to support those living with food allergies, and the hospitality industry, started in 2010 after the nutrition training, but no-one wanted to know about allergens then. No-one realised how serious they can be, or the impact they could have on the hospitality industry.

The plan was to support other people in similar situations, who were fighting with food, not knowing what would make them ill next.

In 2014, FIR1169/2011 came into force, which caused quite a stir among chefs. Many of them said that they were not going to provide allergen information, because it meant giving their recipes and secret ingredients away. More on this another time in ‘We don’t want your recipe!’ The law means that food producers must inform customers about any of the 14 named allergens when they are present in a food product. ‘The 14 allergens EU and UK. How many?’ will be another post coming soon.

www.foodallergyfriends.com grew from a support site for sufferers to include resources for hospitality, but Food Allergy Friends didn’t really say what it meant. After a few years of playing with it, and mulling over alternatives, Cater Allergy Safer became the trading name this year, 2025, and offers support to hospitality and caterers through training, consultancy, auditing and recognition.

For food businesses, it says, ‘We can provide safe food, with confidence for the food allergic diner.’

For the food allergic diner, it says, ‘We can trust this venue to do everything they can to keep us safe.’