It’s good practice to ask anyone coming to eat if they
have allergies of any type first – particularly since you may be making
dishes that don’t usually contain things they’d watch out for – eg. the
cakes from my blog sometimes contain lemon juice and soya, so not suitable for
someone with a citrus or soya allergy.
If
you are cooking for someone with an allergy, always read all the labels
of the ingredients thoroughly before you use them to check that they
are OK and don't contain food traces that might cause a problem (when
you start really researching this you discover many seemeingly innocent
foods could contain allergens because of the factory they’re processed
in). You might even want to get your guests to check the ingredients
too, just to make sure.
You’ll also
need to ensure your surfaces, utensils. baking trays etc. are
scrupulously clean before cooking in case there are a few stray crumbs
that might cause a problem.
Beware
also of jars of jam, pickle (and similar), that could be contaminated
with butter, breadcrumbs or peanut butter, or whatever.
If
you want any more advice, check out the Allergy UK website, which has
many informative factsheets about dealing with food allergies (Click here)