Food safety is taught in schools sometimes, and covers food borne illnesses and food hygiene. When it comes to food allergy, there are a few differences – alcohol hand gel, for example, is good for preventing food borne illnesses but does not protect against cross contamination of allergens.

• Inform family and friends about allergy, and not just on the day you are expecting them to produce safe food
• Ask about ingredients of unfamiliar food
• Declare allergy in restaurants, cafés, when ordering take away food (preferably to a real person rather than just via a comment on an app/website, and preferably to the person actually making your food)
• Don’t accept food if unclear what the ingredients are
• Read ingredients labels #EveryLabelEveryTime
• Consider the risk of items with “may contain” warnings
• Appreciate risk of cross-contamination – this is where traces of a food are spread accidentally from one place to another. This could be on a table or chopping board, it could be a storage container or pan that has already been used for something else, it could be a knife or spoon, a plate, or a person’s hands. The traces may be invisible, and will remain there until cleaned away. So labelling of containers is important, as is cleaning of surfaces, crockery, hands and utensils after food has been touched or prepared (alcohol gel is NOT suitable for removing allergens, just germs)
• Carry allergy medicines and plan when out of home/school