Mod Post: Regarding Allergies & Food Intolerances...


Hi friends, degenerates, and Sickos -

**TL;DR at the bottom if you don't want to read the whole thread**

I wanted to take a moment to talk about a subject that comes up pretty frequently here in Kitchen Confidential. Allergies and other food intolerances and their impacts on not just the human beings who have these conditions, but the impacts on the restaurant industry, especially when it comes to requests for modifications to dishes on account of these conditions.

A recent thread became very popular with respect to a reasonably large set of allergy requests. There was discussion, and of course, you know, it can get a bit heated/somewhat controversial whenever this subject comes up.

I am making this thread tonight, however, because what caught my attention was reading through the mod queue earlier today and finding half a dozen or so reported comments from that thread from, I suspect, someone who likely has an allergy or other food intolerance of their own, who took pretty substantial issues with the thread.

I discussed this with the rest of the mod team, and they agreed on making this thread, and we're all broadly on the same page about how this subreddit wants to handle the subject.

**I also want to be clear - I have zero way of knowing who reported the comments, it is literally impossible for me, or any other mod to "dox" anyone this way.**

**I am also not interested in "calling anyone out". This thread is intended to be informational for all parties involved**.

Okay, so with those disclaimers out of the way, there are two major points we want to reiterate:

*Human Beings With Allergies and Intolerances Deserve Respect*

A couple of the flagged comments were over the line, and I removed them earlier today.

It is **not okay** to turn a dicey, difficult subject, into a hate-fest. Straight up, it is not.

Anyone who suffers from these conditions does not deserve to disrespected simply for having the condition. One such report was along the lines of "They didn't say they were allergic to mercury, put mercury in \[the dish\]".

Even in jest, it is wildly out of line to **suggest potentially poisoning someone** because of their allergy. Come on, now. That's just beyond the pale.

So, the mod team is on the same page here.

If an allergy or intolerance thread comes up, and you are hateful, or otherwise nasty towards the persons or people making the request, you will risk a ban. Just as we do not tolerate other "isms" in this sub, we will not tolerate any ableism that appears to openly mock, or otherwise suggest, someone should be harmed or otherwise treated with less dignity than someone who does not have an allergy. So keep that in mind going forward.

Having said that, point 2 comes down to:

*We are not, at this time, banning the discussion of allergies or intolerance and their impacts on kitchens, chefs, and industry professionals*.

This is one of the requests the report-maker had, and it currently does not seem reasonable to completely ban this topic, at this time.

Yes, from time to time, a ticket shows up at a restaurant that seems either completely unreasonable to try and accommodate, or in the case of several of them that I've seen in the last year or so, *are potentially too risky to make safely enough to guarantee the guest(s) in question do not suffer a medical emergency*.

Mitigation strategies, discussing how to handle these issues when they arise, and yes, a little bit of "gee, I'm not sure how I'm supposed to make garlic mashed potatoes without garlic or potatoes" is, at the time of this writing, going to be within the bounds of this subreddit, as of this writing.

I will caveat - that if we start seeing a bunch of threads that trend towards mockery, hate, etc, we will reconsider this decision.

But for the time being, this is a subject that still merits discussion among kitchen professionals.

We do wish to be inclusive in this sub. Unless, or until, this topic becomes a pervasive "Problem" with a Capital P, we don't think it makes sense to issue a blanket ban on the subject, right now.

We apologize to the reporter who made this request, but, we do encourage people to report comments that **do** actually cross the line.

**TL;DR Here:** No discussing allergies or intolerances in a hateful or ableist way, but we're not banning all discussion of allergies or intolerances at this time, either.

Thanks all, have a great night and great service.