Monday, April 27, 2009

Illinois Senate to Vote on Food Allergy Bill This Tuesday!!!

I am pushing my "Restaurant Roundup" back by a day in order to alert Illinois residents about an important bill being voted on tomorrow. SB152 will be voted on in the Illinois State Senate tomorrow afternoon. The bill provides schools with food allergy protocols and standards for the entire state. This is so helpful because many of us have had to create these ourselves or have had to be the trailblazers at our schools and districts. This bill will help all food allergic kids to be protected.

It's not too late to contact your state senator. Click this link to find them if you don't know who they are.

I know it's kind of short notice, but I encourage all of you in Illinois to e-mail or call your state senator today! Let them know that we care.

Thanks! Restaurant Roundup tomorrow!

2 comments:

Anna said...

I wanted to share with you an email that I received from Wildfire Grill. It sounds like they have their act together!

Thank you for your interest in Wildfire.

First, let me assure you that we take all food allergies very seriously. If your son is ordering any items from the Kids Menu - they are all peanut and tree nut free. The oil we fry in is canola oil, not peanut oil. The fryer is not a dedicated fryer, but currently we are not frying anything that contains nuts. So there will not be the chance of cross contamination.

There are some items on the adult menu that contain peanuts, tree nuts and peanut oil. I am happy to share those items with you, if you would like that information.

As for the grilled items, we can cook those items in a separate pan, to eliminate any chance of cross contamination.

There are some desserts you will want to avoid - Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie, Ice Cream Sandwich (we use Snickers pieces in the ice cream), Warm Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookie, Chocolate Pretzel Sundae (we use peanut butter on the pretzels), and Cheesecake with the Snickers topping (any of the other toppings are safe). All other desserts are safe.

When you arrive in the restaurant, please inform your server of the nut allergy and the server will begin the allergy procedure that we have in place to assure your son does not ingest any nuts of any kind. The manager, the Chef, and the cooks will be aware of your son's allergy.

If I can be of any further assistance with more questions or help with a reservation, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Thanks again,
Ruth Hayden
Director of Training for Wildfire

Jenny said...

Hi Anna,

This sounds great! The only thing I question is the desserts. They are never safe unless prepared in a nut-free facility and given no cross-contact with other foods that contain nuts.

Based on Wildfire's dessert menu, I wouldn't give a nut-allergic person any of their desserts. Safety first!

Other than that--very encouraging news! I will share it in an upcoming blog post.

Thanks Anna!