Milk is the most common, most deadly food allergy. It can kill in under 30minutes. (Yes really, I’m not talking about lactose intolerance). 🥛

I see these mistakes over and over.

𝗡𝗼𝗻-𝗱𝗮𝗶𝗿𝘆 𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗺;
means it is made from something other than a mammal's milk (cow, goat, sheep, camel) It does NOT mean anything about allergy friendliness.
Vegan ice cream does not contain animal products as ingredients but it means nothing about allergy-friendliness.

Recently I ate non-dairy ice cream with “dairy-free” chocolate chips. The ice cream was made in a dairy farm facility, on the same machines as regular ice cream. It was certainly not safe for someone with a milk allergy. It had a warning “may contain milk” on the ingredient label but Dairy-free in the title. It was really dangerous! It was acting like a “free-from milk” ice cream.

It's very important to understand the meaning and difference between vegan, non-dairy, lactose-free, dairy-free and milk-free.

I asked for vegan ice cream, but the 𝙄ᴄᴇ ᴄʀᴇᴀᴍ 𝙨ᴄᴏᴏᴘ came from a pot of water which had been used in between scoops of all the ice creams.

The server spotted the mistake & thought to get a fresh scoop, h,owever the previous scooping of vegan ice cream would have contaminated the whole tube rather significantly.

All the ice creams are open in the same freezer: gluten-free, milk-free, nut-free or non-dairy sections need to be separated by a screen, separate utensils & otherwise “protected” from the other ice creams or there will be a higher chance of ice cream, topping, or waffle cone disqualify the gluten-free, non-dairy or allergy-friendly statuses.

Understand the difference between ingredients, contamination & risk of contamination.

For a light-hearted approach to a deadly serious problem consider joining my Well-intentioned Foodies Program. WIFs for short. It's for food businesses & professionals to learn how to be more inclusive, attract & serve more customers, reduce liability & risk to ultimately earn more.

It's not just a case of food safety & common sense, people generally need to be taught about the law, understand customers & consider the way to communicate, market & optimise customer service for people with dietary preferences.

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