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For people with food allergies, restaurant meals can be a storehouse of hidden ingredients that can cause a life-threatening reaction.
But scientists have revealed a list of things that victims can do to reduce their risk of attack.
In interviewing people with food allergies, experts found that those who used the most preventative strategies against allergies were the least likely to experience a reaction.
And taking 15 different precautions was the magic number: the users of this precaution were able to avoid any reaction.
Talking to the server and ordering foods with simple ingredients are the most popular methods used by allergies.
Other, less obvious, methods were to order food for allergy sufferers separately and to stay in restaurant chains.
Research presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology revealed methods to avoid reactions.
And out of a total of 24 suggested strategies, scientists found that people who used 15 of them were able to avoid allergic reactions during the study.
"We found that when food allergies used more strategies in a restaurant, the result was fewer reactions," said Dr. Justine Ade, the author of the study.
"People who used an average of 15 restaurant strategies tended to avoid serious allergic reactions."
Experts suggest that a particularly effective strategy is to check the ingredients of a restaurant before you leave, but they suggest taking many precautions.
Leigh Ann Kerns, co-author and allergist, added: "Controlling the ingredients of the dishes offered by the restaurant in advance and finding strategies that work for you or your child can help reduce the risk of reactions."
The complete list of strategies, for which the researchers recommended using 15 to avoid any reaction, was as follows:
- Choosing a restaurant chain
- Choosing a familiar restaurant
- Choose a restaurant with allergy accommodation
- Avoid restaurants with a high risk of contamination
- Limit trips out
- Call in advance
- Go during off-peak hours
- Examine the ingredients on a website
- Supplement part of the meal
- Bring a full meal of the house
- Ask how the food is prepared
- Ask to speak to the chef
- Ask to speak to the manager
- Talk to a server when you arrive
- Ask to read the labels if applicable
- Use an allergy card
- Wipe the tables
- Wipe chairs
- Inform your food allergy partner with whoever you are with
- Order familiar dishes at a familiar restaurant
- Order foods with simple ingredients
- Place the food allergy order separately
- Check the food before eating
- Stop eating at the restaurant
The most common method used to avoid reactions was to talk to the waiter when he arrived at the restaurant, which 80% of 39 respondents were able to see.
The top five also ordered foods containing simple ingredients (77%), checked foods before eating (77%), avoiding higher risk restaurants (74%) and reviewing ingredients at the site. Web restaurant. beforehand (72%).
The least used strategy was to place the order of food allergies separately, which 23% of people did.
The last five users also used a card explaining their allergies (26%), did not eat at the restaurant (39%), ate in restaurant chains (41%) and went off-peak (44%). .
During the study, 19 people had an allergic reaction while eating in a restaurant.
The researchers noted that the people who responded took precautions and were motivated to use more after the reaction.
Dr. Ade added, "Those who had an allergic reaction used an average of only six strategies at the time of their most severe reaction.
"These same people increased their average number of strategies to 15 after having a serious reaction."
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