We were watching a Disney Food Blog video the other day, and A.J. highlighted an image from a few of the menus to highlight what Disney is going. I’m pasting an image from her her Food Blog below as an example:
But two things stand out on this.
First, if you read the “Please Note” text, they basically are admitting they can’t guarantee the safety of their food. So, this makes my ability to trust them, no matter how “nice” they appear to be about the whole allergy thing, pretty much non-existent. If anyone has any anaphylaxis reactions to foods, you are pretty much gambling with your life even with the foods they advertise as allergen safe.
Second, I strongly dislike the WAY they list what foods are “safe”. Anyone with allergies knows to look on labels for the allergens themselves. You look for the “Contains” or “May contain” or “Manufactured in a plant that…” kind of phrases. So, we get in the habit of looking for the key words of the allergens. When you see the allergen listed, you know to put it back on the shelf, etc. But Disney has decided to do the opposite, which is, to me, confusing. It says, “For Peanut/Tree Nut and Soy allergies”. My gut reaction, then, is that isn’t safe to eat. But instead, they are saying the opposite. Why would they do that? It is completely counter how an allergic person would think about food. They want to know what allergens it contains, not what it doesn’t contain.
So, while Disney gets tons of praise for how they handle food allergies, I am not at all assured, which leaves us still having to be EXTREMELY picky about what we get. Basically, we try to only go to places where NONE of the menu items they serve contain potential contaminates (that is to say, no Peanut/Tree nut products at that location).